


The Song of the Seven Sided Star - A Faith of the Seven Overhaul

by CaekDaemon



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Faith of the Seven, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-10 04:30:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 50,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13494998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaekDaemon/pseuds/CaekDaemon
Summary: Seven. In the lands of Westeros, no number is more important than seven. Seven Kingdoms. Seven Hells. Seven Gods.Yet despite the immense importance of religion in a medieval society, the Faith of the Seven is one of the more barebones parts of the setting and lacks depth; there is very little history behind the faith and even less about its holidays, its practices and places of worship and all the other things that help make a religion into a religion. The Song of the Seven Sided Star is not a story, not in the traditional sense, but is rather a complete reimagining of the Faith of the Seven...and the impact it has to create a radically different Westeros where the knights of the Faith ride to protect their brothers and sisters of the Faith from Ironborn reavers, Northern invaders and Essosi slavers who serve a Freehold reborn under Aegon Targaryen and his sister wives.First written for AlternateHistory.com, who rather like this encyclopedic style writing!





	1. Section 0: Apotheosis

**The Song of the Seven Sided Star  
** Apotheosis  
  
_Behold, the birth. The birth of all that is and all that will be. In the Beginning of All Things, there was nothing. There was no time. There was no light. There was nothing but the Aether, which was all that there was. The Aether was vast and dark and without form and unending._  
  
The Aether was the darkness and the darkness was the Aether. In one moment the Aether was all. In the next, the Aether was gone. I was born. I was all that there was. I was the Many-who-are-One, and the Many-who-are-One were me. I looked around and saw that the universe was vast and empty.  
  
I was alone. There was nothing but me. I was many. I was one. I was the one who was many. From me came the Lord, the Lady, the Commander, the Architect, the Lover, the Teacher, the Stranger. I am them and they are me.  
  
They are the Seven-who-were-One, and the Seven-who-were-One are me.  
  
From the Lord came the Father, the Lawgiver, the Leader, the Counsellor, the Timekeeper, the Herald and the Vassal. They were the Seven-that-were-One. They were the Lord, and the Lord was me. They were my cruelty. They were my justice. They were my prison. They were my release.  
  
From the Lady came the Mother, the Healer, the Almsgiver, the Emissary, the Cleric, the Reveller and the Young. They were the Seven-that-were-One. They were the Lady, and the Lady was me. They were my fear. They were my compassion. They were my tears. They were my embrace.  
  
From the Commander came the Warrior, the Horseman, the Sentinel, the Hunter, the Engineer, the Strong and the Forager. They were the Seven-that-were-One. They were the Commander, and the Commander was me. They were my anger. They were my courage. They were my sword. They were my shield.   
  
From the Architect came the Smith, the Carpenter, the Miner and Logger, the Cook, the Builder, the Shipwright and the Farmer. They were the Seven-that-were-One. They were the Architect, and the Architect was me. They were my ambition. They were my hopes. They were my hammer. They were my anvil.  
  
From the Lover came the Maiden, the Handmaiden, the Artist, the Entertainer, the Fortunate, the Vintner and the Traveller. They were the Seven-that-were-One. They were the Lover, and the Lover was me. They were my lust. They were my love. They were my sin. They were my comfort.  
  
From the Teacher came the Crone, the Old, the Philosopher, the Torchbearer, the Merchant, the Explorer, the Writer, . They were the Seven-that-were-One. They were the Teacher, and the Teacher was me. They were my ignorance. They were my curiosity. They were my shadows. They were my torch.  
  
From the Stranger came the Bastard, the Broken, the Forgotten, the Lost, the Guilty and the Reaper. They were the Seven-that-were-One. They were the Stranger, and the Stranger was me. They were my nightmares. They were my dreams. They were my demons. They were my angels.  
  
And all of this were me. This was the beginning. For I gave all that I am to make all that there is. From the Aether came the Shape. From the Shape the World arose. I am the One-Who-Is-Many. I am the Seven-Who-Are-One.  
  
And you are me.  
  
**The Seven Sided Star.**


	2. Section 1: The Faith of the Seven Heavenly Kingdoms: The Council of the Faith

**The Faith of the Seven Heavenly Kingdoms  
The Council of the Faith**

  
**The Grand Septon**  Justice IX, the Living Avatar of the Seven, Father of all Andaldom and Protector of the Holy Places, elevated from the position of High Septon of the Lord to that of the Grand Septon following the death of his predecessor, Innocent II, by five votes to two. Formerly a devotee of the Father alone, Justice's reign as leader of the Faith of the Seven has been a fair and just one, well known for its purges of any internal corruption that might have began to fester within the many septries that cover the land. The Grand Septon makes his residence at the greatest of all septs: the Sept of the Seven Hills, in Andalos, something that has only became a possibility in the last few centuries thanks to the securing of the area by the Orders Militant.  
  
**The High Septon of the Lord:**  Courteous, the Grand Septon's successor to the role and the newest member of the Council, though not the youngest, Courteous has since taken over the Grand Septon's former responsibilities as the patron of all those who keep whatever sect of the Father that they do, himself a devotee of the Counsellor from whom he takes his virtuous name. Named to the former seat of the Grand Septons at Gulltown, a prestigious though small bastion of the Faith owing to its proximity to the land where the Andals first made landfall in Westeros and where they raised seven standing stones in thanks to the Faith for the forgiving weather of their crossing.  
  
**The High Septon of the Lady:**  Humility, the youngest amongst the conclave of the High Septons and a woman whose name is still known to the public despite her casting it aside with her elevation to the Council, Humility is believed to be the former Olenna Tully, the daughter of Lord Edmyn, who had opted to take the vows rather than be wed. In any case, Humility is the High Septon of Oldtown, the largest of the septs within Westeros and the location of the reliquary until it can be transferred to the new Grand Sept in Andalos.  
  
**The High Septon of the Commander:** Zealous, a firebrand preacher and the most charismatic of the High Septons thanks to Justice's ascension to Grand Septon, it is generally expected that Zealous will be the next to sit in the Grand Septon's place. Devoted to the Warrior, Zealous is the High Septon of Stoney Sept, where he not only gives sermons on the seventh day of the week as the others do, but takes to the streets to speak in the market square on all the other days of the week as well.  
  
**The High Septon of the Architect:** Diligence, the oldest of the High Septons and one who is generally expected to pass away sometime before the end of the decade, Diligence is an old and familiar member of the Council who has seen the reign of six Grand Septons and hopes only for the chance to see a seventh. Content with his position as the speaker for the Architect, Diligence is a devotee of the Miner, a fitting role for his position as the High Septon of Lannisport.  
  
****The High Septon of the Lover:**** Hope, a middle aged member of the conclave, is perhaps Justice's strongest ally amongst the High Septons of the faith, for they are an honest and just woman who lacks any ambition and is instead willing to allow her piety to carry her wherever it may, making her a reflection of the Grand Septon. Another strong candidate for the role of the Grand Septon for whenever Justice IX passes from this world to the next, Hope plays the role of being the High Septon of White Harbor, a permission granted by the Starks of Winterfell in return for the Faith no longer sending missionaries into their territories and for cancelling what would have been the Third Northern War a hundred years before.  
  
****The High Septon of the Teacher:**** Studious, the second eldest member of the High Septonhood, is someone who is something of a rarity amongst those elevated to so high of a position in that they have little interest in the politicking of their fellows, being more interested in preserving the studies and knowledge of the Faith for future generations than in trying to immortalize himself as the next Grand Septon. The High Septon of Plankytown, in distant Dorne, Studious carefully uses a portion of the Faith's great wealth to import texts and scrolls from the Free Cities and having them brought to his temple where he and his retainers can translate them into the common tongues of Westeros, thus making them accessible to any man or woman who can read and write.  
  
****The High Septon of the Stranger:**** Mysterious, the only one of the High Septons to be found nowhere in the realms of men, only a handful know whether or not Mysterious is a man or a woman, so secluded are they. Communicating with their fellows through the use of letters that are brought to their meditative retreat at the Axe, the birthplace of Andalkind, none has seen the Mysterious in person for the better part of twenty years but for two dozen handpicked retainers that went with them. Only a Council of the Seventy Seven would be enough to draw the Mysterious back from their contemplative studies, and such a thing means that the faith of all of Andaldom is managed only by six of the High Septons and the Grand Septon himself.  
  
**Speaker for the Seventy Seven:**  Addam Estermont, once a knight and now a septon, Addam plays the vital part of speaking on behalf of the Council of the Seventy Seven, the great septons and septas of the realm who elect the High Septons from their own number, thus representing the interests of the lower members of the Faith's hierarchy on the Council. In addition, the Speaker for the Seventy Seven has the responsibility of arranging meetings of the Council of the Seventy Seven whenever the High Septons and the Grand Septons believe one is necessary, allowing the discussion of the Faith's tenants and scriptures in order to settle questions of interpretation, thus serving to help protect Hugor's teachings from the risk of heresy and schism.  
**  
**Master of the Reliquary: Eglantine of Oldtown, the oldest of those who serve on the council without being a High Septon themselves, Eglantine was once considered a serious candidate for the role of the High Septon of the Lover herself in the past, only to be passed over in favor of a younger, more energetic woman. Eglantine has not taken such things lightly, but with it clear now that her growing age and slowly failing body are simply burdens too great for her to be elected to the ranks of the High Septons, whatever anger she might have had has since turned to despair that she will rise no more. Despite that, however, Eglantine works hard to ensure that she is remembered as a fine Master of the Reliquary, personally leading the brown brothers into the depths of the Starry Sept where the most ancient relics of the faith are kept, items that range from the bowheads of the ships that brought the Andals to Westeros to the banners carried by the armies that have gone on holy war to the many thousands of letters and confessions received by the Faith over its long history, all of which is slowly but surely being transferred towards the new Grand Septry in Andalos.  
  
**Master of the Texts:**  Alaric of the Fingers, an orphan of common birth who was taken in by his local septry and fed, clothed and raised by the contemplative brown brothers that lived there till he reached adulthood and joined the order himself. Taught how to read and write so that he might aid the order in its work of copying the Seven Sided Star so as to preserve Hugor's teachings in as many vessels as possible, Alaric would succeed in doing a feat that very few men of the Faith ever achieve - memorizing the entirety of the Seven Sided Star, all seven hundred and seventy seven pages from cover to cover, an exact copy of the text as it was written. Such a feat is said to be accomplished only by one in ten thousand, and such a feat guaranteed the young monk a place at the Grand Septon's side, where he reviews the integrity of its texts and of the many copies of the Seven Sided Star that are sent there from the septrys for review, as well as passing his art onto others so that they might be able to assist him in the work.  
  
**Master of Ceremonies:**  Ulrick of the Torrentine, a Dayne bastard who took the vows of the Faith to escape the stain of his birth and seek a place where he could truly have a fresh start away from his homeland. Though the Faith has many festivals and events around the year, one for each of the divines great or small and another for all of them combined for a total of fifty days in the year being important and holy days and thus days of rest, there are some events that are considered more important than others, days where it is the greater divines that are worshipped and honored and with the most important being the fiftieth day where it is the One itself that is honored. It is those days that are tended to by the Master of Ceremonies, who ensures that all the Faith's affairs are in order for the seven days a year where even wars are brought grinding to a halt and the day when every king in Westeros who keeps to the Faith will kneel before a High Septon and renew their vows of fealty to the gods above. Such days are vital to the Faith's regular running, making the responsibility of the Master of Ceremonies a vital one, but Ulrick has more than earnt his place on the council with years spent touring the lands as a wandering preacher,  
**  
**Master of Festivals: Tygon Lannister, a highborn, a knight and a whoremongering drunk. Too fond of women and too fond of drink to be anything but a problem for his brother, the King of the Rock, and so King Gerold III paid a fortune and promised his youngest son to one of the Orders Militant for the Faith to accept him and place him in a role that would bring no shame to the Lannister name. Accepted and protected by Justice IX's predecessor, Compassion VI, Tygon Lannister was welcomed into the arms of the Faith and placed in the position of the Master of Festivals, where he remains to the present day, keeping track of how long it is before the next festival of the Faith and making preparations for them...or more accurately, allowing his assistants to do the work for him whilst he drinks the altar wine. Though removing such peoples were one of the things that won Justice IX the support he needed to become Grand Septon, the simple fact that Tygon comes from one of the most powerful families in the entire realm is enough to make even him pause, knowing that it is less damaging to have one drunken fool on his council than to risk losing one of the Faith's most important and wealthy patrons whose donations support charitable works the realm over.  
  
**Master of Charities:**  Alys Arryn, King Ronnel's aunt, a woman who took the vows following the death of her husband Gareth Grafton, Lord of Gulltown and who fell down the stairs and broke his neck, in order to spend her twilight years in peace. Well known for her charities in the city that had been her home, it had been Justice IX himself who had welcomed her into the arms of the Faith prior to his ascension to Grand Septon, from where Alys had simply risen higher and higher in her utter commitment to the Faith, with some thinking that she might rise even further to the status of a High Septon...or even become a Grand Septon herself. Such things are certainly possible for her, and her high birth would only serve to help her rise higher still, were it not that she has a fear of being alone with men, a fear that has come with her from the Vale of Arryn and which makes it difficult for her to engage in any private discussions.


	3. Section 1: The Faith of the Seven Heavenly Kingdoms: Deities

 

**Deities**

**  
  
The Lord** , patron of those with the responsibilities of lords and those who are the heads of their households, the Lord is perhaps the only one of the Seven to be prayed to by all of the noble families, asking for his favor so that he might make their reign a long and prosperous one and the decisions that they make for their children in marriage and life wise so that their line can continue to grow strong. For that, he has the love of all the nobility, but even the wealthier part of the peasantry pray towards the Lord with the hope that he will help them rise to ever greater heights. His sigil is the chain, symbolizing the way which lords and patriarchs might bind the land together and bring order to chaos, and is something that can be found on every lord in the form of the clasps that bind their cloaks together.  
  
 **The Father** , the great patriarch from whom the first men to walk the earth came, the Father is the father of mankind, strong and with a firm will that does not move easily, but caring and with the best of intentions at heart...and the guiding hand of men with children of their own. Prayed to by lords with a need to replenish their line with new sons and by those who wish to sculpt them into the perfect heir, the Father is to men what the Mother is to women, making him one of the most popular divines amongst the nobility and the peasantry alike, with the most powerful of kings and the humblest of farmers both giving their thanks to the Father for a strong son and the wisdom to guide them to manhood.  
  
 **The Lawgiver** , stoic and honorable and unyielding and unwilling to give way to injustice or cruelty or anything else that might deter him from the lawful path, the Lawgiver is the integrity of righteous justice given form and a name, the patron of watchmen and jailers and torturers and executioners and the advocates of the law and of fair trials, all of which falls within his purview. Often depicted in the great septs as a bulky figure with a pitiless expression and the mail of a guardsman, in his left hand he carries a blade and in the right a pair of scales, the symbol of his office, and though his hard appearance might make men and women think of tyrants, one of the first of the Lawgiver's lessons is to not allow the quest for justice to turn into injustice through the shedding of innocent blood or the needless oppression of those who have done nothing to deserve such a fate. Invoked during trials of all kinds, whether before a lord or a council of septons or by combat, the Lawgiver is prayed to whenever there is a desire for justice and fairness.  
  
 **The Leader** , who stands at the Lord's side with a cloak clasped with the ancient symbol of the hand, turning his command and his will into orders to be followed by those beneath them and making the Lord's ideas and dreams a reality with his words. The Leader and the Lord are always placed together in the septs of Westeros, big or small, for though it is the Lord that rules the land, it is the words of a leader that make them followed, and that is what the Leader represents most: charisma and the convincing of others to follow in their steps. Worshipped by those who desire to lead and to convince others of their ideas, the Leader finds himself worshipped by all four of the social classes in Westeros, for whilst the noble lords of the land would naturally seek the favor of one who would give them the words they need to lead properly, so too do septons come to his shrines and ask for the favor of the Leader so that they might lead the ones in their care to strong faith and to salvation, just as merchants seeking election to a town or city council might bring chests of coin to the Leader as an offering for his favor just as the foremen of the mines and woodcutting camps of Westeros keep sigils carrying the Leader's mark around their necks to ensure that the ones under their command do as they are ordered...and just as the leaders of the Orders Militant and the other hosts of Westeros might, for it is said that a man with the Leader's blessing could lead a mob to conquer an empire.  
  
 **The Counsellor** , dressed with the bright colors and long robe and with the wizened face of any trusted courtier, provides his Lord with trusted and honest advice, as any counsellor might do in the mortal world beneath the heavens. The Counsellor, whose presence in the sacred texts began with the first lesson of Hugor of the Hill when the One itself revealed the truth of creation to him, is still one of some debate, as his purpose seems somewhat vague - it is generally accepted that the Counsellor is the divinity from which good advice can be found, as the name and text agrees, but the exact nature of such a thing remains uncertain. The most popular viewpoint, and the one officially supported by the Faith, is that the Counsellor provides guidance to those that need it most, with the prayers of men and women asking for a sign or help in choosing what to do going towards the Counsellor and none of the other divines, though such a determination was only truly set in stone with the last Council of the Seventy Seven.  
  
 **The Timekeeper** , one of the most important members of the Lord's court and yet humble in his appearance as an aging man with a chronicle under his arm, a sundial before him and an hourglass in his open palm, the Timekeeper - sometimes referred to as the Horologist, the Chronicler and the Chronologist in different parts of the realm - measures the passage of time through the heavens and the Earth, ensuring that there is a time and a place for everything to be done. His domain is the passing of the light of day to the darkness of night and the warmth of summer to the cold of winter, and it is that domain that makes him so important: men and women pray to him for more time in the day to get all the work and chores that have to be done finished, for a chance to spend one more moment in bed, for the chance to spend an eternity with the ones they love, for a chance to stay young for that one year more. The Timekeeper is time and lavish offerings are given to him in the hope that he will give them just a more moments.  
  
 **The Herald** , one of the Lord's own courtiers in a way that any lord on earth might have a herald of his own, the Herald is the master of sigils and arms for his court, serving his lord and master by creating and maintaining the elaborate coats of arms that symbolize each of the heavenly kingdoms...and ensuring that their tales are never forgotten. Prayed to by those seeking to build a reputation of their own and to make their heraldry recognized far and wide, it is said that the Herald's blessing is enough to give glory everlasting.  
  
 **The Vassal** , another member of the Lord's court and another that can be found as in the heavens as on the earth, the Vassal is the god not of knights or lords sworn to their superiors, but of vassalage as a concept, of the relationship between master and subject. The Vassal thus is worshipped by lords and knights who hope for a smooth relationship between those above and be low them, free of abuses and betrayals and intrigues and full of fairness and honor, as well as that between master craftsmen and their apprentices and everywhere else where a man or a woman is superior to others. Thus, the Vassal is even more worshipped amongst the commonfolk than he is amongst the nobility, the peasantry praying that their lord will honor his vows and protect them from harm in return for their working of the lands.  
  
 **The Lady** , whose work is that of mortal women in that she manages the household, finding places for all its members and their children and ensuring that there is a time and a place for all the events that need to take place within its walls, as well as managing the accounts, settling disputes and helping her husband in finding suitable allies. She is prayed to by those who wish for a well kept, well funded and well connected house, making her the patron of married women highborn and low, and nearly the latter more than the former, with it said that every married woman is the lady of her own castle thanks to the expectation in Andal culture that even lowborn husbands will deal with external things like work and the wife with internal ones and the managing of the house.  
  
 **The Mother** , only ever depicted in art as a woman in her middle ages, with wide hips and large bosom and with a baby in her arms, the Mother is the maker of children, who knits the bodies of sons and daughters within her womb. Soft and loving, the Mother and the Father share responsibility for the creation of the next generation, for how the Father makes sons in his own image, so too does the Mother make daughters in her own. Yet the Mother's responsibilities go further than those of the Father, for what the Father sires the Mother must carry through pregnancy, with all the hazards for mother and child both, and it is there where most of the prayers to the Mother originate: prayers to protect the child whilst they grow inside them, prayers to protect the mother in the birthing bed from fevers and other such illnesses, prayers to protect the newborn from sickness when they first go to their cradle. All that is part of the Mother's responsibilities and all that serve to make her the god prayed to by the most women in all of Westeros.  
  
 **The Healer** , of soft touch and with a softer heart, the Healer is never seen without the medicine bag that carries all the implements of a woman healer, from needles and thread to stitch the deep cuts of sword slashes closed to splints for setting broken bones the saw for removing infected or mangled and useless limbs. Just as the Smith might mend things that are broken, it is the Healer who tends to the wounded of the world to the best of her ability, and though the work of a healer is a grim one, filled with choices that could bring a chance at a long and full life or a slow and agonizing death for any of the men or women to whom they tend, few amongst the Westerosi are as welcomed as a well meaning healer. Prayed to as much by the physicians, surgeons and nurses of Westeros that ask the Healer to guide their hand and to help them to make the right choice for the ones under their care as by the men of war that ask her to ensure that the wounds they take can be easily treated, there are few men in the armies of Westeros who haven't made a recent donation to a Septon of the Healer...and for those who haven't, the Septons make sure to visit the encamped forces the night before battle to take any coin they might have to offer and make sure their affairs are in order!  
  
 **The Almsgiver** , perhaps one of the most iconic of all the divines and one that even the Northmen and the Ironborn would be able to recognize and name just from the sight of the charitable woman's hands cupped in offering, the Almsgiver is unique amongst divines in that she does not take offerings, but gives them. Caretaker of a vast number of almshouses throughout the Andal settlements that serve to protect the poorest in life from the cold of winter and the great heat of summer and give them a place to rest at night and a hot, nourishing meal, the charity of the Almsgiver is not exclusive to Andals, but to anyone in need who steps through the doors in need of a place to stay. Such works would be impossible without coin to pay for them, however, and to do so there is the Alms Tax. Collected once at the end of the year from the people of the lands where the Andal faith can be found in strength and which encompasses no more and no less than one forty ninth of their incomes that year, with only women, children, the elderly, the crippled and the poor exempted from paying a tax that even kings and queens are not, providing the faith with the coin necessary to invest into the almshouses and orphanages that keep many out of the gutter. Though each take under the Alms Tax might be little more than ten to twenty gold dragons for the least of the noble family, the combined collection is more than enough to sustain the Faith's charitable works, ensuring that the poorest who have nothing might at least have some comfort in their lives and a foundation from which to renew themselves.  
  
 **The Emissary** , beautiful and young and the mistress of many tongues, the Emissary stands at the Lady's side as her friend and as her ambassador amongst the heavens and to the mortals of the world below. A diplomat who knows all the languages that can be found, either within Westeros or without, the Emissary is the protector of those who practice her art in Westeros, meeting beneath her banners of truce to discuss terms, of peace or surrender or any other thing of importance...and in a world of many languages, the men who carry their lord's messages are wise to pray to the Emissary to ensure that they hear and speak the words true, that they will be kept safe on their journey from once place to the next, that their time will give fruitful results and and that their protection as messengers will be recognized.  
  
 **The Cleric** , understanding and caring and solemn, the Cleric is the septon god, a priest amongst the divines and who ensures that none ever forget that the Seven, no matter how separated they might seem or how individualistic, are still part of a single, greater entity. The One. Peering down to the mortal world, it is the Cleric who taught Hugor of the Hill the words to write and the Cleric that read them first to ensure that they were honest and true, and ever since he has been the patron of all the men and women of the Faith, protecting them from those that would seek to do them harm and giving them the words they need to convince others of the truth. For this reason the Cleric is often considered to be the bond between the Faith on the mortal earth and the Seven-who-are-One, a bridge that tethers the two together.  
  
 **The Reveller** , ever laughing and ever joyful, boisterous and warm and friendly in all his appearances, the Reveller loves nothing more than to drink and to eat and to dance and make merry, a feaster through and through. All the realm's feasts and all the realms festivals are his dominion, receiving from him the protection that becomes guest right in the mortal lands so that would be enemies might break bread at the same table and do so without fear of the treachery of false promises, and it is the Reveller to whom the hope of a good and enjoyable feast or holiday might go. Indeed, it is thought that the tradition of giving a guest bread and salt to bring them under the protection of guest right comes from the Reveller himself, who is traditionally offered such things in return for his patronage.  
  
 **The Young** , the only child amongst the divine, is the Maiden's younger sibling and her counterpart, for what the Maiden protects, the Young travels with into adulthood. Effectively the god of childhood, the Young covers toys and play and fun as much as they represent growing responsibility and the preparations of children for adulthood - as such, it isn't uncommon to see the Young's symbol on a boy's first training sword and on a girl's first sewing needles alike. Interpretations of the role of the Young amongst the divine do differ from region to region, however, though not so much as to invite the intervention of a Council of the Seventy Seven, with some areas neglecting their role in the enjoyment of youth in favor of a greater focus on the responsibilities of growing into adulthood and the importance of learning what their place will be in the world.  
  
 **The Commander** , first into battle and the last in retreat, the Commander's domain is all things martial, personally covering military strategy and tactics. Carried into battle by those who have stood a vigil in his temples, the banner of the Commander is only ever brought forth during times of crusade, when the Faith itself is threatened by heathens or heretics and when it is every man's duty to defend all that is holy. During Creation, it was the Commander's orders that set the motions of the celestial wanderers and the stars of the night sky in motion, thus ushering in day and night.  
  
 **The Warrior** , worshipped in attack and defense by all men who take up arms, who hope that he will make their aim true and swift and devastating and fill their hearts with unbreakable courage. The god of the close skills of battle such as swordsmanship, pendants bearing the warrior's sword and shield can be found around the necks of knights and men-at-arms alike and is prayed to by all men of battle, but most of all by those who wish to do great feats, such as dragonslayers or demonhunters.  
  
 **The Horseman** , prayed to for swiftness in and out of battle, the Horseman protects rider and mount alike, ensuring that they will not be slowed by inclement weather or soft earth and that their charge will strike true and with devastating force that will wipe their enemies from the field or crush them into the earth. It is easy to find his symbols in a stables or other place of horse, as well as on the mounts themselves in battle or in the joust.  
  
 **The Sentine** l, the defender, who protects men, women, castles and cities from those who would do them harm. A god of fortifications, walls and all the other defenses raised by man, the Sentinel's words are always uttered by the faithful whenever they are placed under siege, whilst his sigil can be found on shields and breastplates from the swamps of the Neck to the shores of the Summer Sea in the hope that his protection might be the difference between life and death.  
  
 **The Hunter,**  whose great bow puts food on the table for hundreds of thousands and whose hounds keep the wolves at bay in peace and reveal the enemy's traps and deceits in war. The patron god of archers and other men who fight from a distance, the hunter is as prayed to in times of peace as he is in war, with many a man giving their thanks to the Hunter for providing them a bountiful hunt.  
  
 **The Engineer,**  whose knowledge allows the faithful to conquer any wall, bridge any river and defeat any obstacle that they might encounter during their campaign, lending his power to those who are willing to try and think their way through a problem rather than simply throw themselves at it with raw force. Siege towers, trebuchets and other engines of war bear his mark, but so do the men who man them and so do the more complex defenses to be found on a castle's walls, whether they be scorpions or ballistae. .  
  
 **The Strong,**  whose arms helped raise the sky and whose arms are prayed to for the strength to do what needs to be done in times of war, the Strong is worshipped by those who have need of his strength and endurance for the long marches of wartime. Worshipped by all men who have need of his raw power, the Strong is the most prayed to of all those beneath the Commander, with shrines to him found in mines and forests and towns and castles and on the shores and on ships themselves, no place or people in the world lacking a need for the strength he might offer them.  
  
 **The Forager,**  the humblest member of the Commander's retinue and yet perhaps the most vital, the Forager, sometimes known as the Scout, keeps the forces of his master aware of their surroundings and of their enemy's location, as well as bringing them the food and water they need to make war. He is prayed to second only to the Commander himself, for it is with his blessing that armies can stay fed and find themselves in advantageous terrain.  
  
 **The Architect** , he whose will shapes that which is, the Architect's domain in the heavens is what it is for his mortal counterparts: just as the architects employed to build all the greatest buildings of the Seven Kingdoms lead an army of builders and craftsmen and give them direction, so too does the Architect lead a company of craftsmen in the task of building and maintaining the universe. His symbol is the caliper, one of the many tools of a draftsman's trade, and is prayed to by builders and craftsmen of all kinds in the hope that he will aid them in turning their plans and dreams into reality. As in the mortal world where it is the vision of the designer in what comes to be, it was the Architect's plan that laid out the universe down to the very last stone, the Architect drafting the world on a black canvas.  
  
 **The Smith** , burly and strong with hammer in hand and with a chest draped with a leather apron is the natural patron of not just common smiths, but of all those who work metal, from the armorers who knit the mail that covers the knights who fight for the faith and who are now turning their hand to hammering plates to the goldsmiths of Lannisport who carefully make the most beautiful jewellry in the entire world. But the one who forged the tools and arsenal of the heavens does not simply represent metalworkers alone, but of all the things that have never lived, from the clay in the riverbeds to the stones and ores of the mountains to the glittering gemstones in the deepest parts of the world, all of which come in his purview. Thus, the Smith's hammer and anvil can be found in the workshops of masons, gemcutters and even cartwrights, all craftsmen seeking the Smith's blessing for what they do.  
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The Carpenter,**  old and wizened and yet strong still, with file and awl in hand, is the patron of those who work with things of wood and the things that once lived, whether on the land, beneath the seas or in the skies, giving them his blessing of a fine eye, a strong grip and a steady hand so that they might apply themselves to their crafts at the best of their ability. He gives his blessing to bowyers, poleturners, carpenters, weavers, pearl grinders, leatherworkers and even apothecaries, the Carpenter's symbols found in the workplaces of hundreds upon hundreds of professions. In the Seven Sided Star, it was the Carpenter who carved the world in accordance with the Architect's designs, the Smith working the aether itself into the first hammer and the first saw, taking the one for himself and giving the Carpenter the other as they started work in refining that which had already been made and in so doing divided the world of men into living and unliving things.  
  
 **The Miner and the Logger,**  twin brothers whose vital works supply their fellows with the ore and timber they need to carry out their work, the Miner and the Logger are considered by some to be the most important pair of gods in the entire Faith of the Seven Heavens, for their blessings are given to the men who form the backbone of the realm's economy. Their holy symbols, a stone axe and a wooden pick lain over one another, are recognized across all of the realms, fostering a brotherhood of the smallfolk amongst the miners of the Westerlands and the woodsmen of the Riverlands and in all the other realms where the two works are done together...something that has caused no little amounts of trouble in times of peasant revolt,  
  
 **The Cook** , the laughing and jovial woman who prepares meals for her friends in the heavens, gave the world all the many things that are edible, from the fruit of the trees to the meat of the animals to the fish in the seas, all of which were made nourishing by her act. She is the patron of those who cook foods, whether they be humble housewives brewing a stew or the royal bakers who make the feasts, all make sure to keep their favor with the Cook as they do their work in the hope that they'll make a delicious and filling meal. Indeed, the favor of the Cook goes so far amongst the bakers of the great castles of the realm, where even a single bad meal might mean a noble's wroth, that they cook their bread with tongs that have the symbol of the Cook - a stone oven - in the center of the Seven Sided Star of the Faith, causing her very crest to be baked into the surface...a technique that is becoming all the more popular amongst the peasantry as well, where  
  
 **The Builder** , the disciplined dreamer who takes that which the Architect dreams and makes it a reality, the Builder is dedicated to the raising of buildings of all kinds, from the humblest home to the grandest fortress or city. His blessing is as much for the structure itself as it is for the craftsman, for whilst the latter might receive his eye for details so that no error goes unnoticed and so that everything is built as it was designed to be, his blessing ensures that which is built is strong and enduring to the ravages of age and storm and siege alike. So important is this blessing in the eyes of the Westerosi that it is tradition in all the realms bar the North that the last stone to be lain in should be engraved with the Builder's seal, that of hammer and chisel and the builder's leather cap, to ensure that it might stand the test of time.  
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The Shipwright**  is a deity who is entirely irrelevant for a vast majority of the realm and yet the most important of them all for a small few, for he is the patron god of the men who sail the world's oceans, lending his strength and skills to the construction of merchant galleys and warships alike, ensuring that their hulls refuse to buckle and give way no matter how hard the waves might be and that they sail a course that is straight and true. His symbol are the ships of the natural world - fish, whales and the other creatures of the river and the sea and the ocean.  
  
 **The Farmer** , though the humblest of all the divines and yet perhaps the most important of them all, was the one to make the soil of the world able to bear life with his pick, breaking the stones down into soil and making the soil fertile. The god of farmers of all kinds, whether they herd animals or work the earth, it is the Farmer who gives the Cook the things she needs to make her meals just as it is mortal farmers who feed the world, and no matter what crops they grow or what animals they tend, it is the Farmer to which they pray for rain and sun in equal measure, good soil and a good harvest. In the stories of the making of the world, though it was the Cook who made the first plants and animal nourishing, it was the Farmer who made them plentiful, making it so her wheat could take root across the world.  
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The Lover** , the most beautiful of all the gods, the Lover's territories are not any place on earth, but within the hearts of men and women in the form of love, her first and greatest gift to the peoples of the world, and it is the heart that is the symbol of her presence. She is prayed to by those who have their aims on success in their relationships with one another, whether it to be for her assurances that their beloved will return their affections, her help in mending a broken heart or rekindling a dying romance.  
  
 **The Maiden** , though her name might be thought to indicate women alone, is the patron lady of innocence in all its forms, and it is from that innocence that she has a holy color rather than a holy image - white. The guardian of all those who are innocent in the world, it is the Maiden's name who is beseeched whenever children and the young are in peril or in need, as can be seen in how all the orphanages across the realm are painted a distinctive white so as to ensure that all men know that the ones within have her protection and that harming them is to damn their immortal souls.  
  
 **The Handmaiden** , forever seen at the side of the Lover and sometimes even placed upon the same plinth, it is the Handmaiden who tends her mistress and makes her into the beauty that the world sees her to be. The goddess of beauty divine or otherwise, the Handmaiden has perhaps the least regular worship of the divines, but is prayed to especially by pregnant women, who hope that her favor might make the son or daughter that they are carrying within them beautiful or handsome, as well as by young girls dreaming of becoming famous beauties in their own right and all those who wish to make a good impression, regardless of whether they are men or women.  
  
 **The Artist,**  one of many men of culture to find a place in the Lover's gardens, is the god of those who work not for the sake of working to keep themselves busy or to make a living, but for the beauty of that which they create - sculptors, painters, bards, all are welcome by the Artist and the Lover to whom they give their prayers, hoping and dreaming that their hands might be able to create that which they imagine and that it will bring them fame and a wealthy patron alike. This makes him different from the Handmaiden, whose speciality is on personal beauty rather than the beauty of objects and songs and words.  
  
 **The Entertainer,**  laughing and joking and dressed from head to heel in motley, part mummer, part juggler, part gymnast and part singer, no lady's court would ever be complete without a man who could step forth at request and make everyone around him laugh, and the Entertainer is the very deity of laughter. Prayed to by entertainers of all kinds across the realm for patronage so that they can make their performances as enjoyable as possible, the Entertainer would be something of a specialist amongst the divines were it not for that he is worshipped as a god of happiness, prayed to by the sad and the down and the bitter for a relief from their woes and to beseech him to help them back to the path of joy once more.  
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The Fortunate** , often depicted in stories and songs as a kindly fool who seems to always stumble into trouble but emerge unharmed, the Fortunate is the being from which all luck in the universe comes, protector of the bold and the fortunate who share his name, who he grants the ability to survive the unsurvivable and simply stumble out of danger and into riches. Great numbers of people across the realm utter a prayer toward the fortunate when going towards or doing anything that might require a bit of luck to be a true success, whether that be a battle hardened general honoring the Fortunate with the hope that their enemies will make the move that they wish them to and walk into a deadly trap or common gamblers in the back of an inn, muttering a prayer as they roll their seven sided bone die.  
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The Vintner** , stood by the Lover's table with a bottle in his left hand a cup in his right, pouring with a smile, the Vintner is sometimes thought to be the cousin of the Cook or the Farmer, for they both have a love of food and drink. But the Vintner and the Cook or the Farmer differ in one key area, and that is that the Vintner creates foods and drinks that are not meant to be nourishing and filling as the Cook's are, but for the simple pleasure of eating or drinking; where the Cook makes hearty pies, the Vintner makes small but delicious cakes, where the Cook makes . In someways, the Vintner is food viewed as another artform like any other, but in any case, the Vintner is best known as the protector of grapes still on the vine and those which have already been made into wine and placed into bottles of eleven sides, matching his sacred number, but that is not all that he does, for many more of life's luxuries come under his purview - sugar from Volantis, almonds from Dorne and even the spices from the distant Summer Islands and the far east are all things that can be found with the Vintner's favor...including the more disreputable luxury of sourleaf, despite its use being frowned upon by the Faith and good, honest Andal men.  
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The Traveller** , clad in her hardy travelling cloak and with a hood over her hair to keep herself warm in the winds and elements, there is always a place for a seasoned traveller who has seen all the beauties of the world in the gardens of any lady of true renown, someone who can tell them stories to ignite the flames of their imagination and that of others. The Traveller is no exception. Protector of those that travel from one land to the next, even on journeys as short as from one town to the next or from a farm to market, the Traveller is similar to the Explorer and the Lost in that she covers journeys, but only journeys where the path from one place to the next is smooth and well known, regular journeys, where the Traveller's protection is invoked for safe roads and a swift journey with good weather. Perhaps one of the best demonstrations of her role in the day to day life of Westeros is how cartwheels bear a star with her twelve points on their hubs, matching her holy number so as to hopefully bring her favor and protect the axles and the rest of the cart from wear or damage on their journey, with merchants and farmers hoping for her favor to make their journey a quick but safe one, even uneventful and boring, whilst there are mayhaps over a hundred inns that bear the Traveller's name, with the famous being the Traveller's Rest where the Kings of the Vale, the Westerlands and the Reach met one another for the first time during their invasion of the Hoare controlled Riverlands, prior to them becoming the Marches.  
  
 **The Teacher** , hunched over at his ward's desk with a book before him and with his finger pressing down on the pages as he shows the child the words, a teacher is the master of education and learning, and the divine Teacher and his court of the learned and the wise is much the same. Sharp of mind and gentle of heart, the Teacher passes his great knowledge of the universe to mortal men one idea and one thought at a time, helping the sons and daughters of the Andalos to understand the beauty, the intricacies and their place in the creation of the Seven-who-are-One. But perhaps his greatest gift to the realms of men is the ability for men to teach one another, to spread the ideas and concepts that they have imagined through speech and immortalize their thoughts forever in the written word, and it is there that people seek his blessing - to help them in recording and communicating their ideas to grown men and women, to young boys and girls, to generations as yet unborn, so that the chain of knowledge that began with the first men to walk the world in a time before steel and farming might remain strong and unbroken. Thus every book and every library and every place of learning in Westeros has its memorial to the Teacher somewhere, whether it be an acknowledgement of his role and a seven sided star written of black ink to a statue of him raising others to his level to entire buildings devoted to his glory and where the foremost minds of the world might pass on the gift of knowledge to younger minds, the Teacher is in some ways the very patron of all of Man and his insatiable curiosity.  
  
 **The Crone** , once a mother and now a widow, crooked and bent with age, but all the wiser for it, far so, for any woman who has grown as old as she has decades of hard earnt experience to draw upon. The Crone, not to be confused with the Old who is also part of the Teacher's cohort, is the giver of wisdom and sage advice, a form of knowledge in its own right, if perhaps a different kind from the Teacher's words or the Philosopher's logical ponderings. Though some often forget that wisdom and intelligence are not the same thing, for a lowborn peasant can be wise without being intelligent just as a highborn lordling fresh from the universities of the Faith might be intelligent without being wise, wisdom is the art of a sound and reasoned judgement, built on a foundation of sensible thinking itself built off of past experiences, and it is that which the Crone gives to those who seek her blessing: understanding and insight and the ability to make good choices from one's knowledge and memories combined. But wisdom is not the only thing that she has to offer, for who better than an old woman to explain the events of the past to the young? Thus the Crone is not just the dispenser of wisdom, but the guardian of history, ensuring that important events be told true and honest, whether they be sweet or bitter, glorious or tragic, heroic or villainous, all come under the Crone's responsibilities.  
  
 **The Old** , ravaged and old and with a brow covered in deep wrinkles and eyes faded to an unseeing white, the Old is the eldest of all the divines, ancient even by their standards and so much so as to be unable to even stand. Protector of the elderly and the knowledge that they might carry within their minds and bodies, the Old is to those in their final years what the Young is to those in their first, relieving the burdens of age and protecting them from the worst of marching time's effects...and helping them to make peace with their affairs before they pass from the world. For this, the Old is favored high and low by those men and women who are losing their youth, with it customary for any man or woman to pay seven tributes to him over their lives: the first when they find a grey hair for the first time, the second when they see the wrinkles forming in their hands, the third when they have their last child and prove unable to have anymore, the forth when the last of their children grow to manhood, the fifth when their hair loses the last of its color, the sixth when their husband or bride passes away and the seventh when they themselves near the deathbed...though the realities of life make carrying out such a custom much more difficult than not, as death can come suddenly and unexpectedly in the many lands of Westeros and neither man nor woman might necessarily lose the color of their hair with age, and so the custom has long since faded away except amongst the most traditional of the Andal families in favor of an easier and more reliable tribute at every tenth nameday.  
  
 **The Philosopher** , a quiet man sat half dressed upon his rock, with chin upon hand as he contemplates the universe, the Philosopher is known by many names throughout Andaldom - the Hermit, the Thinker, the Sage, the Dreamer - and yet for all the differences that might be found, the character remains the same, for the Philosopher is a learned man seeking to understand mysteries wherever they might be found. Cool and logical in his pursuit of answers, the Philosopher's only true passion is for knowledge that might be proven with sound reasoning and which stands up to close scrutiny again and again, and especially the philosophy of the natural world and the question of why things are the way they are and the unity of the natural world with the spiritual one. According to the sacred texts, the Philosopher gave Mankind three great gifts at the dawn of days, with the first gift the gift of intellect, raising men up from the status of beasts making them into Men, something more than sheep or wolves or horses, whilst the second gift was the gift of curiosity and the ability to learn more and the desire to further their understanding of the world around them. The third gift was a gift so precious that it was not even given to the benevolent spirits that serve the Seven in all things: free will, the ability to act as their own and follow their own desires freely whether they lead into the light or into the darkness. Though the Philosopher is worshipped somewhat little amongst the nobility, who prefer the more regal deities of the Lord and the more martial ones of the Commander, the Philosopher still has a place even in the high halls of the land, if less than it does amongst the learned classes that devote themselves to the considerations and explorations of the universe such as geologists and other men of the growing art of natural philosophy that some simply call "science". For this reason, the simple glass eyed bronze tubes of astronomers, called "far eyes" across the Narrow Sea and in the Iron Islands, are referred to as the Philosopher's eyes in the Andal lands of Westeros, just as the glass flasks of alchemy are called the Philosopher's bottle...and just like the most potent of all acids, used by the men of the Mirrormen to destroy dragonscale, is known best as the Philosopher's Wine, able to melt even gold.  
  
 **The Torchbearer** , the Lady of Light who walks in her long and flowing dress of the whitest silk and with her lantern in hand, the Torchbearer is a woman as pale as snow and yet hotter than fire, whose shining light illuminates the world at day through the sun that makes the land warm and bright and at night when the stars and moon come out to dance and shine brightly in the night sky...however, in recent years, the Torchbearer has been something of a controversial figure in the great pantheon of the Seven, for this shard of the One-who-is-Many bears more than a little resemblance to the central figure of the Red Faith across the Narrow Sea, R'hllor. Commonly used by the R'hllorites as a means of masking their true faith when in Westeros due the immense similarities between the two figures, the followers of the Lord of Light will often change their iconic reds for simple whites or other warm colors to hide their allegiance and to better fit in amongst the god fearing Andals of the south, wearing the symbols of the Lady of Light so as to pass unnoticed as they gradually construct cults for themselves in the in secret and lure innocent men and women with a slightly different interpretation of the Torchbearer, pulling them further and further into their grip until what they are worshipping is no longer the Faith-of-the-Seven-who-are-One, but an entirely different faith. The Red Faith.  
  
Perhaps one of the most telling events of the matter was the Meeting of Light and Fire during the Century of Blood that followed the Doom of Valyria and the collapse of the Freehold, where the High Priest of R'hllor and a number of her priests and escorted by the Fiery Hand met the Grand Septon and six other Septons, protected by seven of the best warriors of the Orders Militant. Taking place at Gulltown, the talks would last for the better part of a week, and though started to reduce tensions between the two and to provide the Faith with final security over the holylands of Andalos, they only instead served to inflame tensions when both sides accused the other of little more than heresy; taking the appearance of the Torchbearer as a clue as to the origin of the Faith, the High Priest of R'hllor suggested that Hugor of the Hill was actually Azor Ahai and that the Andals twisted his teachings, whilst the Grand Septon instead said that the Red Faith was surely the Faith of the Seven where the Seven were more tightly bound into One and that Azor Ahai was simply Ser Galladon of Morne and Lightbringer was actually the Just Maid, arguing that they were simply following the lies of the Freeholders who had butchered the Faith into a reverence of the flames they so loved. To say that the attempt to make peace between the two faiths was a failure would be to make an understatement, for now the only true thing the Andal lords of Westeros might hate more than their traditional enemies in the Iron Islands and the North are the "fire worshippers" on the other side of the Narrow Sea, still at peace and yet waging a silent war upon the waves of the Narrow Sea.  
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The Merchant** , portly and round and with a crafty smile and draped in expensive silks and furs that even some of the lower nobility might not be able to easily afford, the tales of the ones who the Merchant favor becoming rich beyond any and all imagination are well known in the bustling ports of Duskendale, Lannisport and Oldtown and every other place where merchants gather in number to do business. The bringer of gold and silver and precious gems, the Merchant is the master of many things, but at heart he is a man of great intelligence, and wiser than any other in the field of sums, whether they be in the hand of a fishwife counting coppers on the docks to great kings working out how much gold they are owed by their vassal lords and how much they need to be paid when it comes round to tax, all matters of coin pass beneath the Merchant's eyes...and so too do all other matters of numbers. Prayed to by millions for success in financial ventures and the hope that they will gain a fortune of gold and coin, there is no merchant in any of the realms who does not either have their own little shrine to the Merchant that gives them success or who hasn't at least given the Faith a sizeable donation in the Merchant's favorite tribute of glittering gold or shining silver or goods that he might sell again.  
  
 **The Explorer** , perhaps the most unique amongst all the divines for the role that he plays, the Explorer is a divine that most will never even consider praying towards, yet one who forever has a place in all the port cities of the realms and even as far north as the Wall itself. Lightly armed and lightly armored, the Explorer at first glance looks to be perhaps a member of the Commander's retinue, a distant cousin to the Forager, yet in reality there is no place for an explorer but in learned halls, and the divine Explorer is no different. A deity of exploration and the charting of unknown lands, the Explorer is another specialist prayed to only in certain situations and who lacks any complex rites or shrines or anything else that could not either be carried on a ship or on the back of a brave man, the Explorer receives his due when sailors travel towards the distant and unknown lands of the far east, of Yi Ti in their quest for precious silks and porcelain, onwards to Leng for the rarest and most exquisite spices and further still to Asshai, the city at the edge of the world where Westerosi wares sell for their weight in gold and gems and silver and where men whisper of evil magics and evil people. Such men are eager to pray for the Explorer's protection, but with them goes those brave few that head into uncertain territory in the lands beyond the Wall and those mad few who go past the edge of their maps in their quest to chart the mysteries of the Land of Always Winter, departing into the snows either to return humbled, frostbitten, mad...or simply not at all. Yet perhaps the most common worshippers of the Explorer are the prospectors, trappers and huntsmen who step into lands little known by others, into the deep dark depths of the earth and the forests that cover it in search of the riches that come from gem and fur.  
  
 **The Writer** , quiet and seated and dim of eye with a steady hand, the Writer is sat forever at his desk, recording the deeds of his fellows in text, recording the tales of the Crone, the fogged memories of the Old, the revelations of the Philosopher, the white song of the Torchbearer, the sums of the Merchant, the maps of the Explorer and the commands of the teacher and all the other fellows in the cohort, immortalizing it all with his inks on parchment and vellum. Though the Writer is worshipped by but a few who deem his aspect of the Seven-who-are-One to be important, those who do worship him above all others and with a devotion that borders on the fanatical, for the Writer is the protector of the written word, the master of libraries in a way that even the Teacher is not, with all the books of Andaldom written in the flowing and beautiful alphabet that the Writer gave to Mankind, a permanent remembrance of the way that he taught Man how to preserve their knowledge for others to use by recording it forever as text. Though all texts bear his protection, the Seven Sided Star more than any other, the Writer is also as much a poet and an artist as he is a scribe, and is worshipped as such by poets and all the other men of the written word to find the best way to say that which is to be said, and though the work often comes before the Teacher, more than a few Court Septons will encourage the children under their care to pray to the Writer to help them learn their letters and how to read and write.  
  
 **The Stranger** , the unknown member of the divine order, little is known about him or her but that they exist and that they themselves have a number of followers. A pariah amongst the gods, the Stranger stays forever in the shadows, their deeds unnoticed by his fellows and by mortal men alike, yet it is that which draws outcasts and other strays, exiles and outsiders to their side, the Stranger willing to take them in when no one else will. The Stranger is the very symbol of the unknowable, the quiet, the distant, and this has led to various attempts to interpret the god's character by septons ever since the dawn of the Faith - some believe that the Stranger represents the concept of mystery and the unknown and that armies attempting to lay ambush, for example, would fall under its domain, others instead believe that the Stranger represents the power of individuals to make choices according to their own desires and is thus the deity of free will, others still believe that the Stranger represents the dark arts of sorcery and other such things and that it and its cohorts should be scorned, not worshipped.  
  
 **The Bastard** , of false birth, the Bastard is either a man or a woman depending on where you are in the seven Kingdoms, with their appearance differing widely from one realm to the next just as the bastard names do, but the role of the Bastard amongst the divines remains the same: they are the deity of children born out of marriage and who thus lack the favor of the Mother and the Father. Protector of the baseborn, bastard children pray to the god that bears their name in the hope that he will protect them from the abuse and mocking of the trueborn, or to help them use the stain of their false birth as a means to get the freedom to make their own way in the world or minimize what harm it might bring, or even to help them in seeing their ambitions and dreams made real.  
  
 **The Broken** , crippled and ruined in the ways that many men are, either as a result of disease or accident or battle, the exact nature of the Broken's disability vary from one place to another, yet regardless of the cause or the nature of his condition, the role of the Broken, the only cripple amongst the divines, remains the same. The Broken is the patron of those who have been made maimed, no matter the cause, who worship him with the hope that he will protect their bodies from any further damage, give them the fortune they need to live their daily lives despite their infirmity and hoping and praying that he might be able to make them whole again, just as how the ablebodied might pray to him for protection against such crippling wounds.  
  
 **The Forgotten** , perhaps the only god or goddess even more unknown than the Stranger, so little is known about the Forgotten that they are perhaps the only figure amongst the Seven Heavenly Kingdoms to have no sigil and only a statue covered in shroud to conceal their true form, whatever role the Forgotten once played has been lost like their name, but it is generally thought by most that such things are exactly what the Forgotten covers - forgotten knowledge, forgotten items, forgotten people and forgotten places. The Third Council of the Seventy Seven, held at Gulltown, attempted to determine the exact role of the Forgotten so as to protect the integrity of the Faith that was being jeopardized by a series, with some success, defining the Forgotten as a god to be worshipped in order to find things that have been forgotten by others and to protect things and places from being lost to failing memory, making it somewhat popular amongst the elderly who so often struggle to recall the events of their past in any real detail...and those who wish to be forgotten or are pursuing those who have been.  
  
 **The Lost** , whose presence in the Septs of Westeros is marked by the lack of a statue upon the plinth that carries its name, the Lost is lost, desperately struggling to find their way home again in a vast and confused world. The Lost is the protector of outcasts, those men and women who have been cut from the fabric of their communities and cast out for whatever reason, even matters of faith that would have all the other divines turn their backs on them in anger or grief, helping to guide them to places where they might start anew or helping them to find themselves again, as well as helping those who are truly lost, such as those in the wilderness, find their way back to where they came. Like all the divinities amongst the Stranger's court, then, the Lost is worshipped little by the masses and only by those who have need of its protection or guidance, though a pedestal remains for them in every sept for those who have need of it, whilst Andal men who have gone to the Wall will usually keep the statueless figure of the Lost in their bags of divinities in order to keep the divine's attentions when they go off on a ranging. However, some instead believe that the Lost is in fact the One, broken as it might be from its sundering into the Seven at the birth of all of Creation, but such a viewpoint is a fringe belief that would get one laughed down at best due to straying from the official teachings of the Faith and which will invite the intervention of the Star-Eyes at worst if one seeks to try and convince others or refuses to see reason.  
  
 **The Guilty** , weighed down by chains and with a noose around his neck, the Guilty is the last resort for those who have been found wanting by the Lawgivers of the immortal heavens and the mortal earth alike, for the Guilty is perhaps the only god for the condemned souls who have been found to have committed whatever crime it is that they were accused. A being of mercy and sympathy for those who share his situation, the Guilty asks for mercy in exchange for a confession of one's crimes, promising repentance to those who have sinned and salvation to the innocent who have been found guilty by the mistakes of men. By ancient tradition brought from the lands of Andalos, a man found guilty is to be given seven hours in a sept to pray to the Guilty for mercy, at the same time giving the ones who made the verdict a chance to consider a suitable sentence and to make preparations for carrying it out, though there have been a number of occasions where evidence brought forth in those last seven hours has been enough to completely change the judgment entirely, with one case of a supposed heretic being spared simply because it was revealed that, though literate, they had poor handwriting and thus leaving exact nature of what they had written up for interpretation, resulting in them being spared the heretic's mask.  
  
 **The Reaper** , the most dreaded of all the gods and goddesses of the Heavenly Kingdoms, the Reaper is neither man nor woman, neither alive nor dead, neither good nor evil. It simply is. Depicted in art as a veiled figure, the Reaper is the harvester of the souls of the dying, collecting them and taking them with it into the afterlife. Caring not for sigils nor crests nor highbirth nor low, the Reaper shows no particular favor to any item or color or anything that mortals might give to offer it...but ultimately, the Reaper is a merciful figure - prayed to by those who want a quick and painless end, the Reaper's Finger is another name for the mercygiver, the thin blades that can slip through the joints of plate armor to pierce the heart of a mortally wounded knight and more quickly bring the end. The deity of funerals, it is before the altars of the Reaper that the dead are lain for a seven hour vigil, having been prepared by the Widows, a sworn sisterhood who devote themselves to the preparing and transportation of the dead and the dying.


	4. Section 2: The Holy Orders: The Orders Militant, Part 1

 

**Sworn Sister and Brotherhoods**  
**Orders Militant  
The Sacred Brotherhood of the Septry Knights**  


  
Perhaps the most famous of all the Orders Militant and, indeed, the very first order to be created during the long history of the Faith of the Seven, the Septry Knights were once known simply as the Faith Militant due to there simply being no other men of the faith under arms. Though surpassed in martial strength by its successors, the Septry Knights, often shortened as septmen, there are none who are considered to be more pious and close to the mother faith's teachings than the Septry Knights, for their duty is a vital one - the protection of the many septs, motherhouses, septries and other places of faith within the realms. Formed in response to Ironborn raids across the coast that preyed upon the defenseless faithful who had neither the arms nor skill to defend themselves, the Septry Knights are a vast brotherhood that receives its funding directly from the coffers of the Faith, supplemented by generous and charitable lords and kings, the sworn members of the order stand guard at each and every sept in Westeros, with the greater the sept hosting greater numbers of knights in its protection. The small, humble septs of remote villages and the like might be protected only by one of the common fellows of the order, armed in rainbow mail and with a good steel sword, but the greatest septs - such as the ones at Oldtown, Lannisport and Gulltown - command small armies for their defense that include battle hardened knights supported by full companies of men-at-arms and archers, ready to march forth whenever the Faith itself is threatened.  
  
For most places, however, the reality is in between: the average castle or town sept might sport less knights than could be counted on one hand, supported by a dozen or two faithful men-at-arms, resting together in a chapterhouse that is part temple, part barracks and part guard tower, eating and drinking humbly as they spend their days reflecting on the tenants of the Faith or aiding the local peasantry in whatever way they might, typically by dealing with brigands or dangerous animals, things that are problematic for the commonfolk but too minor for the attentions of the lord of the land. But when the enemies of the Faith come with steel in hand, whether sailing in the dead of night with black sails upon their longships or sneaking through the swamps and bogs to take Andalmen by surprise, the Septry Knights are often the first and last line of defense until the lord of the land can gather his retainers and his strength and sally forth to aid them...a time that is the most important, for there are many a raider in the North and the on the Iron Islands that know that to wait long enough for the castles of the south to send forth their garrisons is to risk certain death at the hands of their defenders, striking fast and hard and retreating as quickly as they can with what loot they might have with them, loot that can often be people, men carried off as thralls by the Northmen and women carried off as salt wives by the Ironborn. In that, the Septry Knights are a much needed shield for the common folk of Westeros, able to hold the enemy at bay until reinforcements arrive to either drive them away or slaughter them to the last in defense of the land and the common people that call it home, but until then, the peasants flee to the shelter of their septs, hoping and praying as their guards make battle outside its walls and past its reinforced and barricaded doors, with the more wealthy septs ushering women and children into the basements for safety. Some of the larger settlements that are thus home to a larger force of Septry Knights will even go further, with the knights themselves drilling the local peasantry on the art of defense, helping them learn to make use of spears and shields in the defense of their homes and better organizing watches and the construction of watchtowers to act as warnings and ensuring that they remain well manned, as they do at Seagard, a place so often the first port of call for Ironborn raiders that the Septry Knights saw fit to build a small stronghold there, with stout walls and mighty towers that wrap around the town's sept and give it the protection it needs when the men of the Iron Islands come in force, a small castle able to resist siege long enough for allies to arrive from Riverrun and the other lands to push the Hoares back into the sea.  
  
Though such forces might seem a potential rival to the Mallisters, the true lords of Seagard, the Septry Knights remain devotedly neutral in the affairs of the realms and will not raise steel against any man who keeps the faith so long as they come in peace and do not bring harm to the ones under their sworn protection, making their small strongholds a place of refuge for the peasantry in wartime...and the presence of such a stronghold is welcomed by the Mallisters, for not only do the knights ask only for a small donation every once in a while to help support their efforts and to feed the men who man its fortifications, but no lord has ever done wrong by building strong relations with the noble warriors of the Septry Knights, whose famous reputation lends honor and prestige to those they call friends. Indeed, thanks to the order's immensely close ties to the Faith, it has been known for the Septry Knights to intercede on the behalf of their most favored benefactors when they are in their hour of the utmost need, either receiving a letter of approval from the Grand Septon and thus having permission to take up arms against fellow Andals in their defense - or being freely allowed if their enemy has been cut from the cloth of the Faith and cast out, being disowned until they repent and no longer protected from the wroth of their neighbours who are freely able to make war against them, sometimes even receiving a banner of the Faith to carry into battle for doing so - to encouraging the mother Faith to give them donations of gold to support their effort. More commonly, though, is their support in matters of trial or questioning, where their supporter's very faith is questioned and where the support of the Septry Knights can be enough to see any such allegations, even ones raised by their fellow order the Brotherhood of the Star-Eyes, set aside for the time being until decisive evidence can be raised that confirm their guilt without all doubt, yet even then, the Septry Knights have been known to intervene for their most favored friends by either stepping in to offer them a lifetime's service in the order, protecting them from the death penalty, and even stepping in as their champions in a trial by combat, seven against seven, on a few occasions...occasions that have seem them triumph again and again, as the knights of the order spend many hours drilling for battle and are experienced and dangerous fighters to a man.  
  
Yet perhaps the most iconic of the functions of the Sacred Brotherhood comes in times of holy war, where the very Faith itself is threatened by its enemies, for it is that time that many of the strongholds of the Septry Knights are stripped of as many men as they might be able to field, all but those in the areas most likely to be attacked by their enemies, so that the order might march into battle as a single, unified force, flying the banners of the seven sacred colors high above. In such times they make the center around which the armies of Andaldom might form, serving as mediators for the disputes of the kingdoms so that whatever grudges they might have against one another can be set aside for the sake of the Faith and all of Hugor's sons and daughters, combining the armies of the kingdoms together into a single, unstoppable force that can simply sweep its opponents from the fields by sheer weight of numbers alone, yet alone the force of ten thousand knights riding and filled with the unending courage of their faith, a courage that no man or king could even hope to inspire.

 

 

 

**The Order of Knights of the Holy Hills of Andalos**  


Perhaps the most important of all the Orders Militant of the modern age, the Knights of the Holy Hills of Andalos have the vital duty of protecting the greatest and most important of the holy places of the Faith, the Seven Hills of Andalos, the very place where Hugor of the Hill was informed of the order of the things by the divines themselves. Formed after the success of the Third War for the Sacred Hills, where the Braavosi marched alongside the Andals with the belief that they would make a good buffer to protect their island city from the slaver nations of the south and gave them the strength they needed to secure the lands, the Order was initially little more than a small band of warriors who had chosen to stay behind to ensure that the holylands did not fall to the heathens of the Free Cities and the barbarians of the Dothraki, based in a half ruined holdfast constructed centuries before the Valyrians built their Pentos. Yet coming to the attention of the Grand Septon who found their mission to be amongst the noblest of tasks, the small order was given the support of the Faith and recognized as one of its Orders Militant, granting it all the rights and privileges of all the other brotherhoods...and from there, the order has grown and expanded into a formidable force, a force whose greatest strengths can be found in the old homeland of the Andals. Though they keep a number of lesser keeps in Westeros to guard a handful of holy sites and places of importance to the Andal people - places of major battles in the Andal Invasion such as the Battle of the Seven Stars, for example - these are all small fortresses of no more than thirty to forty men at most, intended to protect more against looters and the occasional heathen who might think to try and desecrate the grounds where much blood had been shed with their actions, as well as to commemorate the events there, being part soldier and part historian, these sites are more seriously protected by the Septry Knights due to being somewhat far from the main heart of the order.  
  
But in Andalos, the role of the order becomes abundantly clear.  
  
Though only perhaps a third of the old realm has been reclaimed by the sons of Hugor, that third is heavily fortified, home to watchtowers and keeps and castles in abundance, all manned by the men of the order, from young knights seeking to prove themselves to their fellows to pilgrims who have sworn themselves to the order's service for their chance to tour the holy lands to men-at-arms seeking a chance to atone for past wrongs committed in their lives as soldiers to aging veterans truly committed to the defense of the holy lands and who would rather die than allow them to fall into enemy hands again. Yet even the greatest of these castles pale in comparison to the ones that stand at the very heart of Andalos, the greatest of their bastions and fortresses that stand on par to those of the great lords of the Seven Kingdoms themselves: the Seven Stars. Massive star shaped fortresses that are situated upon the approaches to the Seven Hills where Hugor received his crown and enlightenment both, each fortress has seven points and each were designed by the finest architects and siege engineers that Westeros has to offer, resulting in mighty citadels of the Faith truly worthy of the name; each has seven layers of wall and each layer is seven feet taller than the one that comes before, designed to be abandoned in sequence should the fortress be under assault, each guarded with seven towers each and equipped with seven groups of seven catapults and scorpions each, with seven sally ports from which the defenders can march to meet their attackers in strength and from every direction at once. At each point of the Stars stands a trebuchet, named for one of the lesser aspects of the Seven, blessed by septons and armed with stones that have been anointed in the holy liniments of the Faith as though they were knights themselves, and if that all was not enough, each has seven moats, three dry and filled with stakes and other traps and three with water, with the last filled with oil ready to be lit by a single flaming arrow from the defenders, all separated by an interlocking patchwork of man made slopes that would send any siege tower tumbling to the ground. Beneath the Stars lie the granaries and cisterns to support the garrisons long enough through siege for reinforcement to arrive, whilst the internal space of the castles themselves were home to blacksmiths, carpenters and all the other workmen necessary to arm and armor the men who stood defiant against the worst that Essos might be able to throw at them, as well as small chapter houses of the great Orders Militant like the Mirrormen or the Star-Eyes, ready to lend their expertise in defense of Hugor's legacy.  
  
So expensive was the construction of the Stars and the Grand Sept within their embrace that even the nigh infinite reserves of the Faith's coffers, built from the donations of centuries and millenia of saving and perhaps the vastest reserves of coin to be found not just in Westeros, but the entire world, were seriously dented by the fortification work. But the work was finished, and now the Stars stand not only as a symbol of the might of the Faith of the Seven and its commitment to protecting the great lands of Andalos from desecration, but as a symbol of unity as well, for each Star has a name for which of the Seven it is blessed and each Star is manned by men from a different part of Andaldom - the Star of the Lord is filled with Valemen seasoned by years of fighting against the mountain clans, the Star of the Lady by those from the Marches and united in defense of the faith, the Star of the Lover for the vast Reach, the Star of the Architect for the martial Stormlands, the Star of the Teacher for the Dornish . Even the Northmen have a place upon the defenses in the service of the Seven, manning the battlements of the Star of the Stranger, garrisoned and commanded by those of the First Men who have converted away from the Old Gods and to the New. With each Star drawn from a different part of the Seven Kingdoms, it is only natural that some are more heavily manned than others - the Star of the Stranger is the least so, whilst the Star of the Lover is the opposite - but each Star answers to a Knight-Commander of its own, well versed in the ways of war of their homeland and ensuring that the men of each of the Stars fights differently from any other fortress, making it nigh impossible to prepare ahead of time to exploit any gaps that might be within the way of battle of the knights...  
  
...and, thanks to the Stars being placed so close together that they can see one another from the battlements, ensure that any attacker would not just have to deal with a well rounded fighting force, but engage against an army comprised of the most elite warrior traditions that Westeros has to offer in their own element: the legendary longbowmen of the Stormlands will let loose a rain of arrows that will darken the sky as walls of Valeman heavy infantry advance across the field as an unstoppable glacier to crush the foe against the bristling forests of Dornish spears, all whilst Northern outriders keep the foe off balance as the light Marcher horses exploit the openings that their fellows breach and pave the way for the knights of the Reach to smash the foe as a hammer to the anvil of their brothers-in-arms, seven armies united into a single force. Alone, each fortress and the men within are formidable, but combined together they are the core of a truly world beating army that is not only flexible, but able to excel in all the roles and adding all the more to the many symbols of the Seven-who-are-One that can be found amongst the lands of ancient Andalos.  
  
But perhaps the greatest sign of their dominance over the lands is not the massive fortresses that guard the new Grand Sept, but the small villages that have began to spring up around the ancient land, filled with Andal men and women who keep the faith of their forebears and able to settle the land anew with the protection of the knights, a handful of bold souls from Westeros returning across the Narrow Sea to lay claim to great plots of land to call their own, becoming the foundation of the rebirth of Andalos and perhaps even becoming noblemen and noblewomen themselves in a land where the Grand Septon rules the way any king might, encouraging people from Westeros to seek new lives in the lands of the Faith's birth so as to secure the realm indefinitely.  
  
In time, perhaps the Six Kingdoms will finally become Seven.

 

 

**The Most Excellent Order of the Wandering Pilgrim**  


  
The group whose purpose is the least martial of all the Orders Militant, the role of the Order of the Wandering Pilgrim is to escort Andal men and women through their tours of the holy places, protecting them from brigands, pirates, slavers and everyone else who might do them harm. As such, they keep no significant strongholds, but instead have a great number of small chapterhouses scattered around the realms and across the seas in Essos, where those on a pilgrimage might gather in numbers before coming under the Order's protection and lead to the seven sacred sites of the Faith, culminating with the Seven Sacred Hills in Andalos before returning to their starting point. However, though they keep no great fortresses like the Seven Stars or the Mirrorstone of the Mirror Shields or the Sons of the Warrior Saint, the order is not entirely without property, and indeed, is perhaps the wealthiest of all the Orders Militant, for although their small castle at Duskendale seems humble enough, it is in fact the beating heart of a thriving trade empire, and though some might disdain the order and claim that they are surely appropriating the donations of the faithful for their own end, the reality is that their many chapter houses around the realm cover all the greatest and most important roads, the arteries that link the kingdoms together, and though these roads are used by the pilgrims as they make their way to the lands of the faithful, they too find themselves used by merchants and traders...and the frequent journeys of the Order of the Wandering Pilgrim are the perfect opportunity for the order to enrich itself through trade, ferrying cargo from one town to the next and across the Narrow Sea. Though the process of trading started out as little more than a means to ensure that the order had warehouses in enough towns to feed the pilgrims who had already given up so much to make their way to the holy lands, it has since grown greater and greater still over the years since the order's founding, its Lord Commanders seeing the development of enough skill in bookkeeping and other matters of coin to ensure that each chapterhouse might be stocked for the lowest cost possible and that the pilgrims could reach their destination for the lowest fares to ease the burden on them still, followed then by each warehouse keeping its own ledger of golds and prices and the encouragement of the knights themselves to seek out places where goods are cheap so that they might be used to stock places where they are expensive, something that has since grown and transformed into them taking goods from one place and selling them to another for vast profit that would surely make the Merchant smile upon an order that has come to mimick him.  
  
However, though the order seems more devoted to trade, that is not the end of their understanding of coin, because they have grown far beyond what any of the Lord Commanders that have led the Wandering Pilgrims could have ever expected: they are the first true bank in Westeros. The dedication of the order's lay brothers to the art of managing the accounts of the various chapter houses, as well as those of the noble lords who have chosen to undertake the pilgrimage but deigned to pay for their own accommodations and food and who realize that carrying large quantities of coin would make them a target to thieves and other such brigands, combined together to create a skill at managing accounts...and an individual who deposits their coin at the chapterhouse in Lannisport would only need to keep a single paper of credit upon their person for when they arrive at their destinations and withdraw whatever sum they might need. More, they serve as the middlemen of a number of matters of trade, especially amongst the nobility who might sell a small portion of their lands to another for a price and to whom the buyer would mediate the deal, receiving the payments in whole, sometimes over several years, before securing the trade and ensuring that both sides received that which they had bartered for  _exactly_  as it had been bartered for...and there are more than a few tales of the Wandering Pilgrims being given family heirlooms, jewellry and armor as security on loans, loans that must be repaid within a certain amount of time or cede the security over to the order to with what they please, with items as far ranging as combs of true ivory to daggers of Valyrian steel to a bronze suit of armor from Runestone and even the crown of the Queen-Consort of the Reach following a serious indebtment after a war against the Westerlands, but which was ultimately paid back by the time of the War for the Riverlands and the destruction of the Hoare empire. But perhaps the most cunning practice of the order, and one which many amongst the nobility and even their fellow orders remains skeptical of at best and utterly ignorant at worst, is the buying and selling of debt made by an arrangement between the Wandering Pilgrims and their counterparts in Braavos and Lys, the Iron Bank and the Rogare Bank, where a man could buy a signed letter of credit in Duskendale and take it to Braavos where it would be happily accepted by the bankers there and exchanged for a sum of Braavosi coins or do so at Lys for their oval gold coins. This allowed a merchant in one city to make himself trustworthy and known in one city to the next, allowing them to secure loans of their own even if their adventures carried them far from the shores of Westeros, an incredible advantage as valuable as any precious ruby or emerald has ever been and one made possible by the regular meetings of the members of each bank at the great fairs of their three cities, where representatives of each could meet with their ledgers to settle debts and note off their letters of credit and keep the coins of the world moving smoothly and swiftly.  
  
But not all matters of the Order are so heavily dependent on coin, because the Order of the Wandering Pilgrim is, at heart, a charitable one, maintaining many hostels and hospitals for the many men and women who choose to make the often perilous journey across the realms and across the sea to the birthplace of the Andals and the place from which they take their name, places where any pilgrim need only show the badge of their transit to get a warm meal and a comfortable bed to stay the night, as well as the attention of a healer should they have need of it. Combined with their purpose in escorting the faithful, the Wandering Pilgrims are a respected order, despite how some amongst the lords might look down on them for their "coin counting", and such respect and such charity ensures that few doubt their loyalty, and certainly not that of their commitment to the Faith.

 

**The Honorable Fellowship of the Children of the Sentinel**

****

A brotherhood for which knighthood is not a requirement or even a goal, the Honorable Fellowship of the Children of the Sentinel can trace its origins back to the very same time as the Septry Knights, for whilst the Septry Knights were first born as an order for the sons of the nobility to join in the defense of their faith, the Children of the Sentinel can proudly trace their origins back to the Poor Fellows, an order that was founded to allow the common folk to be able to take up arms in the name of the Seven and which allowed men from all walks of life to join its ranks...and not simply men, for the original Poor Fellows cared little about whether or not it was a woman who stepped forth with sword in hand and shield on arm. Led into battle by the now forgotten Warrior's Sons, their successor being more often referred to as the heirs of the Faith Militant than to the now replaced order that is their true predecessor, it was the Poor Fellows that made up the great majority of the Faith's footmen in those days, protecting pilgrims and travelling septons and the septs themselves, duties that have all fallen to other and more modern orders...but the legacy of the Poor Fellows continues still, in the Sentinels of the modern day, who are unquestionably the largest of all the Orders Militant and who carry the task of supporting the Septry Knights during the greatest of incursions in war and in patrolling the lands in peace. An order of the common man, one does not need to be of high birth or even be the bastard child of a noble to join the Sentinels, or even a man for that matter, the Sentinels the only one of the Orders Militant to accept women into its ranks as fellow soldiers, but regardless of the origins of the men and women who join the order, all are held to the same standards by the experienced sergeants that have risen through the ranks over the years and the order expects the same of each and every one: upon joining the order and swearing a vow in a sept as part of their inductment, they are given a simple and humble crest of bronze to wear upon their clothes at all times, marking their membership of the order, as well as attend the meeting house once a week when time permits to take part in drills and other training exercises intended to ready them for battle when the time comes, as well as finding them suitable weapons and armor, typically little more than a spear and a comfortable and cheap-but-strong gambeson for protection for most.  
  
But other than that they do little more, for the order has no real strongholds but the meeting places in the towns and cities of the realms and a few small fortresses on the roads and in places such as the Marches where the threat of invasion by heathens is all too real, the Sentinels expected not to come to communal barracks, but to live their lives as normal until the warriors horn is sounded and they are brought to arms as a vast, reasonably trained and reasonably armed force. This would make them seem something of a bizarre combination by the standards of the other Orders Militant, as the Children of the Sentinel simply lack the skill, equipment and precision to serve in the roles of their fellows - they lack the raw combat prowess of the Septry Knights, rendering them unsuitable for the often lopsided battles of that order, they lack the steeds and the ability to travel of the Sons of the Warrior Saint and they lack the education and insight of the Star-Eyes and the sheer courage of the Mirrormen, being somewhat balance in every area, a force with no true strengths...and no true weaknesses.  
  
But this is exactly their greatest strength, for whist they are not a sword like the Sons of the Warrior Saint, nor a shield like the Septry Knights or even a dagger like the Star-Eyes, the Children of the Sentinel outnumber their fellows fifteen to one, making them a great hammer to be brought to bear in times of need. They are an army in reserve, a sleeping giant ready to be called into action whenever the need arises, making them both a potent resource for the other Orders Militant in need of assistance in whatever mission they might have and a clear threat to any amongst the lordships of Westeros that might think that the Faith's threats of disownment are empty and meaningless. There have been more than a few times where a particularly petulant lord has seen fit to abuse the lands and privileges of the Faith for their own gain and be warned of the consequences only to laugh in the face of them before recounting their words and offering the Faith a tribute when the many thousands of Sentinels in their lands and in those around begin to muster into a force that no single lord could hope to beat in a pitched battle, not when they are supported by the other Orders Militant and not when there are other lords nearby who would be all too happy to march at the Faith's side for the promise of reward and forgiveness for whatever sins they might have committed over their lives. Even more common are the times where a member of the Star-Eyes would ride to a town where there has been rumor of unnatural doing and call upon the local meetinghouse of the Sentinels for whatever information they might be able to spare and whatever men and women who could help give them the strength they need to cut out the rot of magic and heresy and all the other evils before their roots can grow deep, and just as many are the times where the Septry Knights themselves would call upon their former brothers for aid against coming enemies that might be too strong for them to be able to fight on their own, the Sentinels serving as a ready reserve able to come to their aid faster than anyone else might, even if perhaps not with as much expertise as the men-at-arms of the Septry Knight's own order and those of the local lordship, many of whom are often drawn from the ranks of those Sentinels who have distinguished themselves in their training and courage. Even more common are the times where self-organized patrols of Sentinels might head out into the roads to investigate rumors of banditry and other lawless men, bands of vigilantes and thieftakers and watchmen that head out into the wilderness and bring back whatever lawbreakers they might find for their lords to pass justice on.  
  
But perhaps the greatest time of importance is in the time of holy war, where the soldiers of the Children of the Sentinel assemble at their meetinghouses and begin to amass their numbers, ready to make battle in the defense of all of Andaldom as a force of trained and equipped troops ready to serve as a first wave and reenact the historic battles of the first Faith Militant by marching under the command of the Septry Knights once more. It is only then that the slumbering dragon that is the army of common men and women truly begins to wake...but when it does, the world trembles.

 

**The Militant Order of the Seven Sails**  


  
The greatest of the maritime orders of the Faith, the men of the Militant Order of the Seven Sails - a reference to the first seven ships to cross the Narrow Sea at the start of the Andal Invasion - are the Faith's wall against the many threats that surround Westeros, separated from the innocent peoples of the faithful realms by mere channels of water that had proven no barrier to their very own forefathers. Though the orders of the Faith Militant are ancient, and the Septry Knights and the Sentinels can claim truthfully that they were the first of the Orders Militant to receive the blessing of the Grand Septon, perhaps older still is the Order of the Seven Sails, for their history goes back millenia, back to the days when the Andals first made the crossing across the Narrow Sea, following the ancient prophecy given to Hugor that his sons would rule seven great kingdoms in a distant land. It was then that the seed that would become the Order of the Seven Sails was planted, for they served as ferrymen, shipping the many thousands upon thousands of Andalosi from their ancestral homeland to the new, making the voyage across the often unpredictable waters of the northern sea to take them to a place where they might be safe and where they might make a fortune for themselves in a new land full of possibilities. Had things continued as they had, the Order of the Seven Sails would perhaps be nothing more than a footnote in the great annals of history, a half-forgotten legend taught to bored children and debated by the scholars of the Teacher's Sons...but history took a different path when mighty Argos Sevenstar and his great host were smashed at the Battle of the Weeping Water, his host slaughtered to the last by an alliance of Stark and Bolton. Launching a retaliatory strike for the failed invasion, the King in the North, Theon Stark gathered his host once more and marched down to the mouth of the White Knife, White Harbour then little more than a village outside the Wolf's Den, using what few Andal ships had been captured and constructing barges from timbers sent down from as far north as the Wolfswood, floated down the westerly White Knife in great plumes a hundred logs long. Putting to sea after the better part of a year to prepare, King Theon crossed the Narrow Sea with little issue, the future Vale of Arryn plunged into the anarchy of war and the Three Sisters too frightened by the massive battles raging all around to risk drawing attention to themselves, though the weather turned fierce as snowstorms came from the open waters of the Shivering Sea to batter the fleet, scattering them over many miles of land, something that would have surely made their landing a disaster, were it not for many of the fighting age Andals, skilled in the ways of battle, having already gone across the Narrow Sea so as to make the lands safe for the wives and children who remained on the other side of the Narrow Sea, awaiting the time when they would be reunited with the ones they loved.  
  
The slaughter was of epic proportions.  
  
With so many men in Westeros fighting to make new lives for themselves in an easier land and to escape the pressures of a rising Valyria, there were few left behind to protect their families and their homes from the vengeful Northmen, who came and slaughtered and raped and raided their way across the hills and rolling plains of Andalos, butchering the few knights who remained to make battle against them and defenseless women and children both, their wrath utterly indistinct as they impaled the bodies upon stakes and dragged them behind their horses for miles on end till only bloodied stumps remained. Their invasion was neither war nor battle, but a merciless massacre, culminating in the razing of the Grand Sept of the Seven Hills and the defilement of the remains stored there, and it was only their own choice to withdraw, lest they be caught in Andalos and trapped there and let the Andals do to the North what they had done to Andalos, but in the wake of the invasion that saw the coastlines made red with freshly spilled blood and the rivers dammed with the bodies of raped women and murdered children, an invasion that sent nearly a hundred thousand souls to the Seven, who wept for their people, what mercy the Andals had evaporated, and what First Men were taken alive as prisoners were shown no favor and made to suffer before the end. But whilst the war in Westeros escalated, it became clear that beloved Andalos would need protecting against any further strikes, protection against enemies that might cross the Narrow Sea and destroy that which remained and give the Andal men nothing left worth fighting for, protection that could defeat a larger force long before it made landfall in Essos and protection that did not depend upon the now ruined castles of the east.  
  
The Order of the Seven Sails was born with the mission to defend the faithful from those enemies who lurk across the seas. It is a mission that has remained unchanged for thousands of years, even if they had not been known as an official Order Militant until recent years. Serving as the Faith's wooden wall, the Seven Sails could field perhaps the largest single fleet in the Seven Kingdoms if they were to amass their ships into a single place, but to do so would go against their mission to defend the Andal people from the enemies who lurk beyond the waves, a mission served by their many coastal fortresses that serve as far more than mere castles where the order's numbers can rest between patrols and battles, but as shipyards where their warships can be lain up for repairs and refit and where the Seven Sails can build new ships, ships that are amongst the best that Westeros has to offer, built from oaken timbers seasoned for seven years in the drying houses to give it immense strength and with hempen rigging and thick linen sails that carry the crest of the brotherhood of sailors. More, these strongholds are wisely placed with an eye for the control of the major sea lanes, further ensuring that the bloody slaughter of Andalos might never be repeated and that they might specialize their fleets for each environment: the small port of Starhaven can be found on the shores of Cape Wrath, where two dozen cogs and other ships of sail can exploit the mighty winds of Shipbreaker Bay for unparalleled maneuverability, whilst Ghaston Grey has been transformed from a Martell prison into a thriving anchorage for the dozens of galleys that call it home between their patrols of the Stepstones and the southern shore. Further north in the Narrow Sea is Gulltown, where another great galley fleet is stationed, ready to put to see in but a few days notice and ready to protect the Vale of Arryn and Andalos both from their enemies, and further north still is the Starsister, built on the island of Sweetsister and welcomed eagerly by the Borrells, desperate for protection from the Northmen who killed two thirds of the people of the Three Sisters during the Rape of the Three Sisters that saw Lord Belthasar Bolton make a tent out of the skins of the slain. On the other side of the realm, the ships of the Seven Sails are split evenly between Lannisport and Seagard, surrounding the Iron Islands and forever on patrol to try and stop their raiders from making landfall and to prevent the Hoares from fulfilling their dream of reclaiming the Marches, once the greatest of their fleets and now superseded only by their new fortress at Driftmark, claimed once the Velaryons abandoned the island in favor of relocating themselves further east after the Targaryens all but forsook Dragonstone in favor of their Volantene capital.  
  
Driftmark had always been a powerful port since the often maritime Velaryons established their holdfast there, but with the Seven Sails having taken over following the failed conquest, it has been transformed into the beating heart of an armada, the crown jewel of the order and the greatest bastion of the wooden wall that protects the lands of Westeros from invasion by outside powers. Supported by the Faith and by the charitable donations of the many lords who fall beneath the protection of their umbrella, many reasoning that it is cheaper to support the Seven Sails than to build and maintain great fleets of their own, the order has been steadily redistributing its naval power from the west to the east, a reorientation that shows their recognition of the greatest threat to the Andal kingdoms: the Free Cities.


	5. Section 2: The Holy Orders: The Orders Militant, Part 2

 

**The Honest and True Brotherhood of the Star-Eyes**   


  
Amongst the smallest of the holy orders and yet perhaps one of the most dangerous, the Honest and True Brotherhood of the Star Eyes serves a vital niche, filling a gap in the arsenal of the Orders Militant, for whilst its fellows might be swords, shields and lances, the Brotherhood of the Star Eyes is the thin and deadly dagger, a precise tool for precise work. Numbering no more than eight thousand members across all the realms where they can be found, counting sworn knights and common men both, the Star Eyes lack the numbers for confronting the pagans or heathens on an open field, but that was never their purpose. Instead, the blessed members of the brotherhood hunt down the enemies of the Faith that have managed to find their way within the realms of the south, for like the ancient patron for whom they are named, the Star Eyes are an order of witchhunters and demonslayers, devoted utterly to the destruction of those who have bartered away their immortal souls to the hells in order to wield the foul powers of sorcery and skinchanging and all the other magics wrought by their dread knowledge. Commanding secluded castles in each of the southern realms, from the cold peaks of the Vale of Arryn to the open plains of the Reach and the battered shores of the Stormlands, each answering directly to the High Septon in their region and each to the Grand Septon himself, the castles of the Star-Eyes might appear to be little out of the ordinary, but their construction is anything but - the grounds of each of their fortress-septs were blessed and sanctified by a High Septon during every stage of construction, the perimeter of the walls marked with the same sacred oils and liniments used to mark a newly annointed knight, and if that were not enough, the very mortar that makes up the walls and binds together the masonry is made with the destroyed relics of all the maegi that the order has felled over the years, hundreds of glass candles smashed into dust and added to the cement to make it all the more impregnable to the foul forces and shadow creatures of the night. But the greatest protection of all lies in the center of each and every castle, in its guarded reliquary, for there lies a wooden timber from the ships with which the Andals first crossed to Westeros, carved with patterns first spoken of by Hugor himself and each one of the holiest relics that the Faith can give them.  
  
Yet all this protection serves to protect only one place in its entirety and would be useless were it not for the men of the order themselves, sallying from the battlements of their sanctuaries at the first whiff or rumor of sorcery, willing to visit even the smallest farmstead in their quest to eradicate the black art of witchcraft from the world. Even grounds and individuals that have been scrutinized thoroughly and declared to be pure are examined again during their patrols, so that they might be sure that nothing has slipped them by, that no stone has been left unturned, but though the order always sends a man to see the truth of the matter whenever the presence of a sorceror is suspected, often a junior member with less experience in the matter of that, it is only when it is sincerely believed that there is a maegi at work that the Knight Captains of the order will arrive...and woe be to any skinchanger or seer who crosses their path, for the Knight Captains will show little mercy. Dressed from head to heel in the iconic blacks, whites and blues of their order, the Knight Captains of the Star-Eyes have a dreaded reputation Westeros over, said to be warrior, bloodhound and septon all rolled into one, but there is little question as to whether or not they are able to bring forth results: it was a Knight Captain of the Brotherhood of the Star-Eyes that uncovered the taint of the skinchangers of the First Men in a village in the Vale of Arryn, having solved the puzzle of bizarre acts of animals, disappearing children and strange noises at night to find that it was the master of the lands himself that was the source of it all, a false knight practicing his dread art to claim fame in the tourney lists...and it was the Knight Captain and no more than three men drafted from the town who placed his severed head above the gates, the village freed of the menace.  
  
Larger actions have brought out even greater responses, as their greatest fortress in Oldtown can attest, having been ordered to arrest its previous masters by the Grand Septon himself and place them on trial for the crimes of wizardry and conspiracy against the Faith, the Star-Eyes placing hundreds on trial as they swept through the grounds of what had then been known as the Citadel, destroying the order of maesters that resided there and putting nine in ten of those whom they had arrested to death, the Lord Commander claiming for all to hear that it was better that ten innocents go to die than a single maegi go unpunished, the streets filling with the blood of slain men and the air with the ash of burning books.  
  
But perhaps the most feared of all their roles is as the Faith's sword and shield against an enemy from within, for when the Star-Eyes go out in search of suspected heretics, none are safe, for even the lords and kings of Westeros must pay their respects to the authority of the Faith, even the greatest of kings forced to kneel before the gods. Given the authority to find and cut out the festering rot of false-septons and false-lords before it can spread and give rise to a full heresy, or worse, a schism, it is only matters where the integrity of the Faith itself that will make the order come out in all its strength, finding those who have strayed from Hugor's path and bringing them to repentance, branding them forever as ones who have strayed from the Faith...and for those who refuse to repent, the Star-Eyes are allowed to employ any means in their arsenal, even the torture rack, to make them confess to the crime of heresy, with even highborn lords and ladies not to be spared from their wrath. Should a mighty lord have turned against the Faith and raised his own armies, however, then the situation will mandate for nothing other than the most powerful weapon in their arsenal - censure, the cutting out of a tumor from the fabric of society, an excommunication for them and their kin that gives any lord or kin ample enough reason to make battle against them or strip them of their titles, the Orders Militant flocking to join in.  
  
Nowadays, however, the Honest and True Brotherhood of the Star-Eyes makes battle against the various pagans and heathens in the realm, scouring the land clean of skinchangers and the mythical greenseers, using the location of heart tree's as ambush places for the followers of the Old Gods and other pagans, as well as tracking down those who abandoned their faith in the Seven for the Drowned God during the Ironborn dominion over the Riverlands. The busiest place of their action remains the Vale of Arryn, where they carry out a silent war against the mountain clans, hunting not the men who make up the warriors and raiders who pray on the Andalmen who have settled the valleys, but the elders, the aged men and women who pass their traditions and way of life from one generation to the next and keep their children aware of their heritage, aiming to sever the cords that bind one generation to the next and thus finish the clansmen forever...yet the historic rivalry between they and the Septry Knights seems to be flaring up in recent years as well, with the Star-Eyes believing that their cousins in the Septry Knights do not go far enough in the prosecution of their duties and that they should not simply protect their settlements, but purify the land around them as well.  


 

****The Holy Order of the Blessed Sons of the Warrior-Saint** **   


  
A wandering brotherhood devoted to the legendary Ser Galladon of Morne, a hero whose purity earnt him the blessing of the Father and the affections of the Maiden and whose relentless courage and wise fighting brought him the favor of the Warrior and the Commander both, the Blessed Sons of the Warrior-Saint do what their patron had once done centuries before and travel the realm, seeking out the evils that plague the world of men rather than simply awaiting them to come to him. The sword to the Septry Knight's shield, the Sons of the Warrior-Saint are the other side of their coin in that they deliberately ride to places where there are enemies to be found to destroy them before they can go onto attack the honest and innocent men, women and children who keep the Faith of the Seven and whom are always the first victims in times of war. Though the brotherhood maintains a number of mighty strongholds, with their greatest fortress at Morne on Tarth where the legendary patriarch of their order originated, these strongholds exist more as a place for the knights and men-at-arms of the order to rest, recuperate and rearm than as any bastions of defense, for it is known that the Blessed Sons of the Warrior Saint will travel far and wide in search of evils to be cleansed, with the knights of their stronghold of Falcon's Rock in the Vale of Arryn riding as far west as the Red Fork and Riverrun in their pursuit of those who might carry out evil. It is the very nature of that evil, however, that separates them from their cousins in the Star-Eyes, for whilst the sons of Symeon might deal with evils of a supernatural kind or the slow and insidious kind that might burn for decades before its results are clear to be seen, the sons of Galladon are devoted to confronting the evils of a mortal and fast burning kind, evils that range from hunting down entire outlaw brotherhoods equipped with weapons and armor looted from the battlefields of the realm to rooting out corruption...and dealing with the crimes of noblemen and women who reach beyond the authority of their station. Whilst the presence of the Star-Eyes might make the lowborn hide in their cellars for fear of their gaze, the sight of the crossed cloaks of the Sons of the Warrior-Saint bring celebration and rejoicing, for it is for no small reason that the Lord Commander of the Order bears the title of Protector of the Commons, a clear recognition of that which the knights of the Order were sworn to protect - the people.  
  
In the long history of the order, no text in the entire history of the order has ever referred to the peasantry as "smallfolk", only ever as "commonfolk", for one of the first lessons that any recruit learns is how all of Westeros is built upon the backs of its farmers and miners and common men and the knowledge that the role they play is far too important for them to ever be called small, that their strength is the strength of the kingdoms and of the Faith and of all mankind, leading to the reversal of a common saying amongst the Westerosi lords: "As the people suffer, so does the realm."  
  
And though every knight swears to protect the commonfolk, only a few every truly commit themselves to such a goal...and every man who might call himself a Son of the Warrior-Saint is one of them. Their actions have lead to them receiving acclaim and enmity amongst the high lords of Westeros in equal measure, for the Blessed Sons are a blade forged for use against them and their Knight-Commanders carry perhaps the most powerful weapon to be found in Westeros: a letter of marque and justice, bearing the seal of the Grand Septon, placing them above the laws of lords and outside of their authority - so much so that a lord that dares to do so little as imprison a member of the order is declared to be acting against the best interests of the Faith, something that no man would  _ever_ desire, - and so allowing them to act freely and carry out their own justice, overruling the authority of lords and knights to pass their own sentences how and when they see fit. Such a thing would seem open to abuse, as the knights would seemingly lack any barriers to rein in their power, yet such power is necessary when it is individuals as mighty as the lords of the realms themselves who are perhaps the most important target, and whom are the ones that the order seeks to bring down from the seclusion of their high dais and drag them to justice, and it is justice that they bring; the roving parties that travel the lands speak to the commonfolk, asking them if their lords uphold their obligations to them and their promises of protection and fair rule, asking if there is need of failures and crimes in need of redress, asking if their woes and their struggles have been ignored in favor of the "game of thrones" that many lords busy themselves with. The Blessed Sons do not simply take note of their feelings, either, but will actively seek to the bring the guilty to justice, confronting them in the open and calling for the intervention of their liege lords to stop them from growing overmighty...or even bringing them to justice themselves, simply placing them under arrest in broad daylight and escorting them to the nearest stronghold of the Sons of the Warrior-Saint or any of the other Orders-Militant to await trial and ransom.  
  
Such actions do not have their dangers, however, and many a brother has been slain by the lords that they seek to arrest and their holds attacked, yet just as many are the tales of the Warrior-Saints marching forth in strength to hunt down those that have done so and bring them to the executioner's block for the crime of the murder of a soldier in the army of the Seven, times when the wroth of the Faith and its many Orders are barely contained and can be quenched only by the utter submission of the guilty and their immediate apologies and repentance, though kings are wise to come down on any lord who might harbor such thoughts of carrying out crimes against the Faith before they can act on them. And though there are thus tales of the knights of the Warrior-Saint cutting their way through the garrisons of castles to find the false lord within and drag him out into the streets, such accounts are rarer than not, yet the order certainly seeks out lords with an inglorious reputation, particularly robber barons and the like who have grown to abuse their power. But perhaps their most famous role is as the dispenser of the Faith's justice to those who continue to carry out the foul right that is perhaps the last legacy of the First Men in the southern realms, something condemned utterly by the Faith and banned in all the kingdoms where the Seven are worshipped and where the rule of law is strong, and that greatest crime, that mortal sin, is to practice the Right of the First Night. A practice utterly unknown in Andalos and yet native to Westeros, the first Andal invaders had adopted it much as they adopted the other traditions of the Westerosi lands that they had taken in their conquests or through their marriages or through their preaching, a practice where a lord might bed the bride of their common folk on the wedding night before the groom and where a king might do the same to their lords if they so desired, a practice that now carries not only the death penalty, but its nature as a crime against the integrity of marriage - and thus a crime against the Seven - means that it is a crime that brings the harshest of punishments: to be drawn for seven miles by horse, struck dead with the heretic's mask and cut into seven pieces to be scattered across all of Andaldom.  
  
It is a punishment that the Blessed Sons of the Warrior Saint are entirely willing and able to carry out, a reminder that the lords of the south should never learn to forget why they are lords and why the peasantry labor on their fields. In this way, the cross cloaked brothers are the enforcers of the laws and customs of the entirety of the land at once, sung of as paladins of true righteousness and honor by the commonfolk who benefit from their protection and accepted by the lords that know that their protection extends to them, too, should their own lieges break their obligations to them. Thus it is more often that new recruits come from the lesser nobility of Westeros, families like the Beesburys and Mullendores who are sworn to the Hightowers who themselves sworn to the Kings of the Reach and the Stormlands, families little more than those of landed knights and the closest bond between the high lords and the common men and women of the lands, than they do from the greater dynasties and the royal lines themselves.  
  
And though the Knights of the Holy Order of the Blessed Sons of the Warrior Saint devote themselves to their quest for true justice, there is another quest that they follow, a secret quest known only to the most trusted brothers of the order and who make up the order-within-an-order of the Swords of Morne, the elite of the Order's sworn members and those who have proven themselves to have truly taken the virtues and missions of their brotherhood into their heart, just as they did the lessons of their patron. Little is known about this quest, for the Swords of Morne speak little of it to the regular fellows of the order and even less to outsiders...  
  
...but for those who have risen to the highest ranks and earnt their place amongst the best that the Blessed Sons have to offer, the truth is theirs freely, to be taken to their grave and uttered to none, not even any wives or children they might have should they leave the order, not even to their closest friends, for the secret is more important than any other and passed down from one member to the next, never recorded in written text.  
  
This quest is the quest for all the items of their beloved Warrior-Saint, items of holy power that have been lost for millenia and who are almost as legendary as the man who wielded them in life, for mighty Galladon of Morne was the most favored champion of the Seven since the days of Hugor, and if the legends of their order are true, reuniting all seven will bring their saint back to lead them again, as a paragon of righteousness and a champion of the Seven-who-are-One.  
  
And they already have one piece. The most precious piece. A piece that remains at their fortress at Morne. A piece that remains untouched by unworthy hands. A piece that rests undisurbed in the most secluded and secret parts of their reliquary. A piece so precious that even gold and gems and Valyrian steel are considered worthless enough to be used as distraction to draw attentions from it. A piece whose holy power can be felt without even a finger lain upon it. A piece that can reduce the strongest of men to tears to gaze upon their reflection in its surface.  
  
That piece is the Just Maid.  


 

****The Order of the Knights of the Mirror Shield** **   


**  
**  
The Order of the Knights of the Mirror Shield, whose patron saint is the legendary Serwyn, the Knights of the Mirror Shield, called mirrormen for short, are a brotherhood of some of the most elite knights that all the realms of Andaldom have to offer, devoted to a single task - dragonslaying. Formed by the command of Grand Septon Courageous III in response to wild dragons crossing the Narrow Sea during the rise of the Freehold and plaguing the countryside of the many realms of Westeros, the Knights of the Mirror Shield would maintain several chapter houses amongst the eastern coast of the Seven Kingdoms, with the greatest of all their holdings located on the northern shore of the God's Eye Lake, Mirrorstone Castle, a massive fortress monastery that housed the skeleton of Urrax and where the knights of the order were lain to rest...and where they developed and stored the knowledge of the slayer's craft, dissecting the corpses of the beasts they slain to develop powerful toxins and weapons with which to prosecute their mission.  
  
Slaying many a beast over the years, the knights of the Mirror Shield would become so acclaimed for their role in the realm's defense that the Valyrian Freehold sent a request to the Grand Septon requesting the order to be dismantled, considering it a veiled threat against their dragonlords...but before any such decision could be carried out, the Doom occurred, perhaps by divine providence, and the matter was rendered moot by the collapse of the Freehold. In the years that followed the fall of Valyria, companies of mirrormen led by the Knight Captains would hunt down and eliminate a number of surviving dragonlords who attempted to flee to Westeros in order to escape the chaos of their homeland and the knives of the rebellious slaves, claiming their arms and armor for the order as battle trophies and in one case parading the broken body of a Lord Freeholder's warmount around the Seven Kingdoms, having slain the rider before he could reach the dragon before using the beast's rage as a means to lure it into a trap where it was entangled with netting and crushed by boulders. With only a few dragons left in the world, however, the order languished into disrepair, a shadow of its former glory forced to abandon its former holdings and retreat back to its fortress-sept and celebrate its past glories as the relic of a bygone age...  
  
...till Aegon Targaryen, the last of the dragonlords, crossed the Narrow Sea with his dragons. In the past, the Order of the Knights of the Mirror Shield would have been more than a match for even a group of dragonriders such as him and his sisters, having bartered for tomes and scrolls of dragonlore from the now truly independent Free Cities in past years and having vast knowledge on draconic physiology, yet decayed from years without a strong patron, the Order was in little state for a serious engagement.  
  
Yet things can change quickly, and rallying their forces for the defense of the realm against dragonkind for one last time, the knights manned their fortress as the realm's first line of defense against the would be conqueror. Yet his dragon, the great Balerion the Black Dread, was amongst the largest the order had ever encountered, healthy and strong unlike the previous mounts of the Lords Freeholder that they had felled in the wake of the Doom, and would pose a formidable challenge. Easily destroying the lesser castles that littered the Blackwater Bay, Aegon marched his forces towards what he knew to be the most important of all the targets in the realm, even more so than the keeps of the great houses themselves: Mirrorstone Castle. A treasure trove of knowledge, Mirrorstone Castle contained enough information about the weaknesses of dragons that, given time, it could allow the Order to be able to neutralize the power of his dragons and render the conquest an impossibility...and with his conquest underway, the mirrormen had no shortage of patrons willing to give them what they needed for their work. It was a threat that would swell larger and larger with every day that passed and become insurmountable if it was allowed to go unmolested, and so Aegon brought his forces there almost immediately after his landing, and gave the order an ultimatum - throw open their gates and surrender their arms, armor, banners and their collection of dragonlore, and their lives would be spared and they would be allowed to return to their families freely.  
  
The Lord Commander of the Order of the Knights of the Mirror Shield refused.  
  
Allowing the knights of the order until dawn the next day to reconsider his offer, Aegon Targaryen retired to rest that evening with his sister-wives Rhaenys and Visenya, whilst the Lord Commander concocted a bold plan...and in the dead of night, the knights marched.  
  
Now numbering only ten full companies, no more than ten Knight-Captains, a Knight Commander and the Lord Commander himself, wielding the great Valyrian steel sword that had been taken from the last of the Lords Freeholder and named Dragonsbane, mirrormen ambushed the Targaryen encampment when the moon had yet to rise, exploiting the weak nightsight of dragonkind, cutting a bloody swathe through the camp at great cost before they encountered the greatest of the Targaryen dragons, Balerion the Black Dread, and made their attempt to kill the beast before it could take flight. Unable to maneuver in the tight confines of the camp, unable to use its fire freely lest it incinerate its master, his wives and its own siblings and unable to take flight without ground to let it build up the speed it needed, the immense black dragon was at every disadvantage...  
  
...and yet as the knights made battle against the great dragon, their Lord Commander had a different plan. Rushing to his dragon in order to take command of the battle, Aegon Targaryen was separated from his sisters on the way to their own mounts and cut off from his stalwart guardian Orys, who had rushed to take command of the ground battle, but when he arrived, the Lord Commander was waiting for him, blade in hand, catching him from behind with a slash to his shin before placing Dragonsbane's edge against his throat, pressing hard as he shouted for the dragon's attention, Balerion the Black Dread snapping to him in an instant, opening its mouth to let forth its black flame  
  
Then it stopped at the last moment, hesitant, unsure, the bond between mount and mountee too strong for it to want to hurt its rider with its flame, even when the great black dragon itself was at risk of death. It couldn't bring itself to hurt him and would sooner sacrifice itself than do so. Yet Lord Commander Lucamore's plan was not to use Aegon as a hostage to buy time for his sworn brothers to kill the beast, but to reason with the sisters who had already reached their dragons and taken to the skies. Forcing Aegon to bargain with him as his strong right hand, the Knight Commander of the Blackwater Rush, positioned himself to drive a pike deep into the Black Dread's eye and into the brain behind if talks failed, the Lord Commander kept him pinned there at blade point, holding him hostage till his sister's landed and the fighting ceased, Lord Lucamore refusing to let him go until he said words that would forever change the course of history, words uttered in return for his life and that of his own, beloved mount, witnessed by knights and septons and sister-wives alike:  
  
"I, Aegon Targaryen, Lord of Dragonstone and Dragonlord of the Valyrian Freehold, formally cede any and all titles over Westerosi land that I or any of my descendents as yet unborn might lay claim to in perpetuity, and swear that these words are true on the penalty of death for myself and my kin, in return for promises of safety for myself, my family and our dragonmounts and safe passage back to our own territory."  
  
With that, he was no longer King Aegon, the First of His Name, the King of All Westeros, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm.  
  
He was simply Aegon, Lord of Dragonstone.  
  
Bound by oath, the Lord Commander lowered his blade and let Aegon walk free, and he walked in utter silence, past his sisters asking him if he was alright, trying to talk to him, trying to pry an answer of what to do next, only for the Targaryen to do nothing, to say nothing, but mount his wounded dragon and fly back to Dragonstone, not a single word said between him and those who were dearest to him. So sudden was the departure that his sisters did not even get the chance to find out where he had gone before he was already in the skies, soaring above, forced to follow his lead as the army below began to disintegrate nearly as quickly as it had formed, the Thorne's returning to their own lands alongside the Darklyns and the others, the Targaryen demesne on lands of the Blackwater Bay simply collapsing into disarray without their king and his dragonmount to bind them together.  
  
Retreating back to the newly constructed Aegonfort only to give orders to abandon the settlement before razing the castle to the ground from the back of Balerion the Black Dread, venting some of the anger he and the dragon shared, his sisters would arrive not long later and Orys and what little remained of their host a few days after, the once mighty host now reduced to not even a quarter of what it had been before his retreat. There, with dutiful Visenya flying back to Dragonstone to order what little remains of the Targaryen fleet after the disastrous battle at Gulltown to start ferrying his troops back to Dragonstone, Rhaenys would console her husband about their failure on the shores of the Blackwater Bay, but as they spoke, horns would be heard in the distance...  
  
...and over the hills would come the banners of the Gardeners, the Kings of the Reach, King Mern's sons and grandsons having ridden forth with a few hundred others against his command in their quest for the glory of felling a dragonlord. Charging down the hills with horns roaring and lances low, it took mere moments for Aegon to mount Balerion and Rhaenys her Meraxes, followed swiftly by Orys arraying the Targaryen host atop of what the lowborn had come to call Visenya's Hill in a round wall of spears and shields, a schiltron formation meant to break the strength of their charge.  
  
And break their strength it did when the charge crashed against the spears. There was no glory in the attack. There was only death. Death of Gardener men whose charge faltered on the slopes and lost the momentum they needed to carry it out, death of Targaryen men who were cut down as the knights rushed in on foot after losing their steeds, death of horses that were caught on the deadly tips of pikes...and the death of Orys Baratheon, overwhelmed in the center by Princes Edmund, Gawen, Garth and Jasper, four against one.  
  
Seeing his bastard brother go down in battle was the last that Aegon could take. The would be conqueror cracked and brought his mount as low to the ground as the beast would dare, so low that men could hear the sound of banners snapping off the dragon's leviathan bulk as the world turned to fire, black flames ripping through the dry grasses of summer and racing down the slopes faster than a man could run or roll.  
  
Then the battle became a massacre.  
  
Slaughtering the attacking force to the last and even going so far as to continue strafing the ground from atop Balerion the Black Dread after the last banners had fallen and as men desperately tried to yield or flee the fields, Aegon killed every last man and horse in the Gardener host from dragonback, with his sister saying after the battle that it was as if he had been asleep on the back of the dragon, so little he cared for carrying out the slaughter. When all was done, he did not land his dragon again, no, for Balerion tipped its wings towards the Narrow Sea and flew, leaving the men on the ground and his sister-wife to watch as he flew into the distance, homeward bound.  
  
Only when he returned to Dragonstone was the king's fury truly unleashed, and a dragon's fury it was: in his wroth Aegon would smash the Painted Table that had been carved on his order, in his wroth Aegon would cut the heads from gargoyles and dragons whilst shouting curses, in his wroth Aegon would hurl the rubied band that had been his crown into the waves, in his wroth he would tear the pages from the texts he had spent countless hours studying and in his wroth he would slap his sister-wife Rhaenys, the one and only act that was enough to drag him from the depths of his rage.  
  
Only then did he drop to his knees in the midst of the room where he had spent a year planning and only then did the tears come as he wept for a lost kingdom and a lost brother.  
  
Aegon was a broken man, and neither the Rhaenys he had hurt with his hands or the Visenya he stunned with his tears had any idea what to do, though neither left his side for a moment, sharing in his grief.  
  
Yet whilst the Targaryens wept for their broken dreams and for the loss of one of their own, the last true heir of the Freehold routed from Westeros, the celebrations at Mirrostone Castle were of epic proportions. Lucamore, Lord Commander of the Order, was toasted again and again by the kings of the Westerlands, the Reach and the Stormlands, who had brought their armies out together to sweep Aegon from the field with the greatest host ever assembled on Westerosi soil, three kingdoms and three rivals united in the sweet taste of victory over the greatest enemy that any of them had ever encountered. Again and again the Lord Commander and his men told the tale of their victory, the best bards and sculptors and painters in the realm having come to the castle in their hunt for a king's patronage and recording the legendary deed in song and stone and canvas, and with success came the promise of renewed patronage; never again would the Knights of the Mirror Shield need to be concerned with the future of their order or a lack of supplies or coin with which to mend their walls or warm their halls, not when the kings of Westeros had seen them hold off an enemy that could well have overran all the kingdoms of the south.  
  
So great was the support that the order would induct a hundred new members over the seven days of celebration alone, the empty halls and spaces of Mirrorstone Castle filling with life and noise once more as recruits were made to pour over and ponder the texts of their predecessors, studying the archives of dragon lore and learning all that there was to learn about their enemies as the order rose from the ashe. Storm King Argilac would describe the process better than any other, telling with boisterous pride to all that might hear that "Would Be Aegon" had depended on the realm being unfamiliar with the power of dragons and being taken unawares by his plan, caught with their guard down and whilst preoccupied with other matters, but now, now, the realms were aware of the danger the Targaryens posed and would never allow their guard to be lowered or for the threat of dragons to be ignored again, toasting the knights of the Mirror Shield for their triumphs and swearing to them his support as all the others did.  
  
Yet it was then that word arrived of the Targaryens finally leaving Westeros, words cheered by all, only to be then followed by news of the battle at the Aegonfort...dire news, for although the Targaryens had left Westeros as they had promised to do, the Gardener line had been almost brought to an end in a day as two generations were wiped out in a single battle. It was nothing short of a disaster for the Kings of the Reach, a backbreaking blow that could have been the end of the dynasty itself if Mern had taken to the field, for in a moment he had lost all four of his sons, his two grandsons and his nephew all at once, and though the king was still in his late-thirties, having wed and sired heirs young, he was now unmarried, his beloved wife having gone to her grave with the birth of his last son from a fever that left him unwilling to remarry...but now that he was amongst the last living members of the family but for a newborn baby nephew that was all his younger brother left behind before dying of a bad belly, there was no choice: if the Gardener name was to survive, Mern had to marry.  
  
And it just so happened that the Gardener king had become fast friends with a man who had a daughter of the standing necessary to be queen of the most powerful kingdom in Westeros, a woman who was to surely be the last of her name, and that woman was Argella Durrandon. Her father Argilac was a giant amongst men, a battle tested commander and a fierce warrior, but he was aging, and again and again had failed to father a son as the Durrandon line grew narrow with the loss of its sons in the holy wars against the Ironborn that had destroyed the Hoare empire and liberated the Andal Riverlands from their tyrannical ways, but more than anything else, Argilac knew he was to be the last of the Durrandons. In the Stormlands, men vied for the chance to win his daughter's hand, promising that they would take the Durrandon name the way that Joffrey Lyden had once taken the Lannister name centuries before, and yet Argilac knew them to be false, knew that they were simply wanting the marriage so that they could have his kingdom and his castle without a fight and that the moment he passed his sweet Argella would be trapped in a tower, forgotten, and the line of Durran Godsgrief usurped by traitors and oathbreakers. None of them were worthy to be the successors and replacement of his dynasty and indeed, the very reason for his furious reaction to Aegon's proposal of wedding his beloved daughter to Orys Baratheon was because of that knowledge, Argilac finding the very idea that a bastard would be worthy of becoming the successor to the Durrandon kings a preposterous and outright  _insulting_ idea.  
  
But then the idea came to him.  
  
He was an old king, a king who would not be around and able to protect his daughter forever, but what if he found her a groom that had no need to usurp her? A powerful husband, one that would be able to continue his work in protecting the people of the Stormlands highborn and low from their enemies when he was gone? Someone with enough troops to prevent the realm from dissolving into civil war as men killed one another for Argella's hand and who none could deny as a worthy match? A man of honor, courage and whom he knew well enough to know that his one and only child would be safe?  
  
A man like King Mern?  
  
Argilac did not make the choice lightly, for he knew in his heart that his actions would be to effectively sign away the sovereignty of the realm of his fathers and forefathers, to surrender the Stormlands to one who had been its greatest enemy...and yet who had been their most valuable ally on just as many occasions, having ridden to the aid of the Stormlands when none else would when the Ironborn stood at the peak of their glory and when the Dornish threatened to overwhelm the marches. Though they had been rivals, the two kingdoms neighbouring kingdoms were tethered to one another by economic ties, for it was the timbers of Argilac's Kingswood and the Rainwood that were crafted into Gardener ships and Gardener furniture and used to fuel Gardener hearths come with the winter, drinking Durrandon ale to keep themselves warm just as it was Gardener flour that was made into the bread that fed the Stormlander people in the coldest winters and the warmest summers alike, just as it was Gardener wool that they spun into their clothes. So closely tied were the realms that the coins of one were accepted the other, even though they bore two different kings on their surface, and so closely tied were the realms that he knew that the Gardeners were men of honor and chivalry and courage.  
  
He could trust them to keep his people safe when he could do so no longer.  
  
And so an offer was made with one condition and an offer was accepted with that one condition. The ancient lines of Garth Greenhand and Durran Godsgrief, heroes both, were joined in one, two kingdoms united into one with them. The Stormreach was born and the Gardener-Durrandons would be its kings.  
  
For the nights of the Order of the Mirror Shield, however, such a thing was a minor, if welcome, affair. Their task was clear - to ensure the protection of the people of the Andal faith, no matter where they are in the realm, from the threat of dragons and foreign conquerors both - and it was a task that they would spend year after year preparing themselves for, restoring their old abandoned chapter houses and holdfasts throughout the realms as their numbers swelled and even the old title of Grand Master revived for their Lord Commander, each region planned to have a Lord Commander of its own to coordinate the defense. Tomes at Mirrorstone that were translated from Valyria's own scrolls of dragonlore, acquired in the Century of Blood, were copied down on fresh parchment and preserved in the libraries at Mirrorstone, with the most precious tomes copied again and again and given to the different chapters incase the knowledge might be needed in an emergency and to preserve the most vital information should Mirrorstone Castle ever fall. Capturing the imagination of young boys from the Wall to the Summer Sea and supplied with all the coin that thye might possibly need thanks to their wealthy patrons, there was no way that the knighthood could not recover from the years of stagnation, and recover it did, for its armories would fill with new weapons and new armor, even the new "coats of plate" that had began to see the battlefields of Westeros, just as their stables filled with the finest destriers and palfreys all draped in the absolute white of the order, fast and strong, all whilst their barrackses and chambers became home to new knights and new men-at-arms and new heroes to continue the lineage of the order. Even the places where the learned men of the order brewed the immensely dangerous acids that were used to burn through a dragon's wings, weaken their scales and destroy their vision were restocked, allowing them to once more create the terrible liquids that had been the bane of dragon and rider both since the order's founding.  
  
But their greatest weapon is neither sword, nor shield, nor steed, nor vial, but three bolts kept deep within the most heavily guarded and sanctified of the vaults of their fortress-sept, each covered in metal barbs and serrations, each forged from weapons taken from fallen Freeholders and Dragonlords that had been slain by the knights of the order in the Century of Blood.  
  
Each forged of Valyrian steel and each bearing a single word.  
  
Balerion.  
  
Meraxes.  
  
Vhagar.


	6. Section 2: The Holy Orders: The Orders Civil

 

**Orders Civil**  
**The Sworn Order of the Teacher's Sons  
**

  
An order of monks and thinkers and theologians grown out of the various septries that cover the Andal lands of Westeros, the Sworn Order of the Teacher's Sons was once little more than a means by which the Faith could ensure the education of its own members and thus a supply of new Septons to replace those that have passed away...but with the purging of the Citadel of Maesters at Oldtown revealing a serious chink in the Faith's armor, a flaw called "ignorance" and "doubt", the Order of the Teacher's Sons were expanded to fill the void that the heretics of the Citadel had found and were thus given a new mission as the educators not just of new Septons, but of all men and women who were willing to listen to their lessons.   
  
The Faith's first and greatest line of defense against heresy and influence from foreign faiths across the Narrow Sea, the Teacher's Sons are the vanguard of the Faith, its shock troops who defeat the foe not with sword and shield as the Orders Militant might, but with the greatest weapon in their arsenal: the power of education and debate. Though their well stocked and funded septry-schools give any who are able to pay a high quality education that creates individuals with a well rounded knowledge of the world, if perhaps with something of a focus towards scripture, even bringing in particularly gifted children who have proven themselves to a septon but lack the wealth necessary for education in under the Faith's own patronage, the teachings of Hugor of the Hill and the Faith that he created are forever remembered by the individuals that have been there...and who might yet pass themselves onto further and higher education at one of the Faith's universities where they can be crafted into true warriors of the Faith and the tip of its spear against heresy. The true heirs of the Citadel that had been deemed heretical for its study of the black arts of sorcery and magic, the students that attend the Faith's universities possess an excellent grounding in the many forms of knowledge that they teach, from mathematical principles to the heritage of Andal literature to the philosophy and the science of the natural world as it is as yet known to be, their faith reinforced by years of study and contemplation of the Seven Sided Star. Though somewhat conservative in nature when it comes to the views of the natural world, they do not shy away from independent study either, carefully studying the nature of the world that they can observe around them so as to better understand the masterwork of the universe that the Seven-who-are-One created; such knowledge led to the faith disavowing the concept of "astrology" as neither witchcraft nor science, but simple superstition of little value or harm and something certainly not worth the Faith's time.  
  
Such students, once graduated, find themselves entering the world with perhaps the most possibilities of any man or woman to have ever called its surface home, for although it is but a short step from there to joining the ranks of the Faith and countering those whose beliefs have strayed from the Faith's official stances with reasoned arguments and a disciplined mind, there are many a place where they can go and rise high upon their talents - one such place is the Order of the Star-Eyes, who eagerly welcome the graduates of the Faith's universities into their ranks, elevating them directly into the brotherhood at the more senior rank of Knight-Rector, who act as trusted advisers to the Knight-Captains themselves and who often rise to the rank on their own once they have sufficient experience and skill at arms. The courts of the great lords and kings are another place where an educated man can certainly find a position for himself, for though the head of the treasury might be a trusted friend of the king, one who has earnt the privilege of being able to manage the realm's finances, the men under his command are certainly not, their positions too dependent on the need for a good education for the king to be able to simply place a friend in the role regardless of whether or not they would be able to do so.   
  
But no matter how far their tuition might take them, a man who has been brought into the Order of the Teacher's Sons is a member until death, able to rise from the ranks of a mere student either by taking up the responsibility of educating the next generation of members and thus becoming a teacher themselves, or by publishing works of importance, such as philosophical texts, translations of foreign works or even independent research into the nature of the world on topics that range from the study of the minerals and gemstones that make up the world's skeleton to examinations of plants that might benefit the works of men through use as an agent of healing or sustenance, all of which are accepted by the Order with little reservation. Such works are even funded by the Faith itself from time to time, though usually only when a Grand Septon who had once been the High Septon of the Teacher rises to command the ship of faith, spread far and wide and with the highest pride at man's growing understanding of that which the Seven have built...and though the Orders Militant might look upon them with some disdain for their work, there will never be any doubt as to their purity so long as they stay well, well away from the dark arts.  


 

**The Widows of the Divine Reaper  
**   


The oldest of all the Orders of the Faith, Civil or Militant, the Widows of the Divine Reaper had once been known as the Silent Sisters in a bygone age, but though the passing of time might have changed their name and their sigil, it has done nothing to change their purpose and the duty that they undertake without complaint, a duty that is as necessary as it is grim. An order comprised entirely of women, the Widows of the Divine Reaper do not discriminate on the age of those who come to join them and neither on whether they were born high or low, with young women of low birth who had decided to take the vows to escape arranged marriages standing alongside highborn women decades past their childbearing years who chose to take the vows once their marital duty was well and truly done, all bound together in a work in which they all share: the preparation and tending of the many dead of the realm, from the poorest pauper to the greatest king, so that they might go to the Seven and be welcomed into their embrace, as well as to give their loved ones the time they need to mourn them before the dead is to be interred into their final resting place. Such works give them a black reputation, the presence of the Widows in their dark robes seen as an omen of coming death in the very same way that crows and vultures are, yet there are none who could truly say that they hate the silent sisters of the Divine Reaper who devote their lives to ensuring that others might be lain to rest in dignity and respect, no matter the fortunes that they might have had in life or what crimes they might have committed or whether they died in peace or in war, where great processions of the Widows might come forth to the battlefields to lead the dead back to their lands of their birth so that their kin might have a chance to mourn and weep and heal for it. To do this, they either preserve the bodies by removing the organs and draining the body of blood so that it might be replaced with their concoctions and herbs to protect the body from decay, or in the case of where the rot has already started to set in, cleansing the skeleton of the decaying flesh so that it might be better transported over great distances and to preserve the dignity of the dead, all of which are skills that require both training and swift action if the body is to be preserved long enough for a true and proper funeral to take place.  
  
But perhaps the darkest duty that they do is the work they do for those that never truly had a chance to live, the many babies who entered the world still and unbreathing and those that died in their mother's arms moments after drawing their first breaths and those that died in the cradle, all of which are tended to by the Widows, not only so that the mother might have a chance to rest and recover from the labor of birth, but so that they might and their husband and all their children might have a chance to say goodbye and a chance to remember that the one that died was still part of their family, even if perhaps for only a little while. It is the grimmest of their duties, tended to only by the most steadfast - and some say, deadened - of the widows, women known as White Widows for how they dress themselves from head to heel in the color of innocence and the color of children, one that can break the heart of even strongest men and women to see done, yet one that has earnt them the gratitude of mothers across the realm, thankful for their chance to see their child for one last time. Similarly, they tend to the many mothers who pass away in childbirth, a thing that has surely filled the graves of more women in Westeros than anything else in the world, on the behalf of their kin in the Sisterhood of the Blooming Rose, the two orders closely related thanks to the sheer mortality of birth amongst the high and lowborn alike, the Reaper favoring neither when it comes to take its due.  
  
Yet not all the works of the Sisterhood are so grim or to do with matters of the dead, for the Widows presence after battles gives them the opportunity to apply their knowledge to the matter of preventing it from occurring in the first place, using their knives and thread to seal the cuts of the wounded and to remove dying limbs that would otherwise take their owners to the grave with them. Between such works, however, the Widows of the Divine Reaper busy themselves with quiet contemplation of the nature of the divine in their isolated septries, communities far from the distractions of the towns and other villages where they might have a chance to relax away from the scarring nature of death and focus their attentions on matters of faith or simply work to forget the things that they have done and seen either since joining the order or from the life before it, tending to flocks of sheep whose wool they spin into fine cloth or growing grapes to make into wine, either of which they might sell at market for coin to support their septries and their studies...a presence that can often reinforce the misconception that the sisters swear a vow to never speak - in reality, they simply speak  _very_ little - when they carry out transactions without so much as a single word being said.  
  


 

**The Blessed Missionaries of Hugor's Wisdom  
**   


  
One of the younger and smallest orders and one that was born with two purposes, the Blessed Missionaries of Hugor's Wisdom not only serve as wandering septons who have responsibility of ensuring that even the smallest and most remote settlements of the lands of Westeros are not without am an of faith for too long, but also serve as the messengers who carry the words and teachings of Hugor of the Hill to places where they have yet to be heard or have not been heard for decades or centuries, bringing with them nothing more than the clothes on their back, a hard worn copy of the Seven Sided Star, a bottle of liniment for anointing the faithful and a crystal necklace to reveal the broken light of the rainbow that is the true symbol of the Faith. Though the first duty is one that can be done by any septon when they know that they have the protection of a wandering knight of the Orders Militant to escort them through the land and coin to pay for lodgings at the inns that dot the roads and the protection of the Faith to ensure that not even the most depraved killer would think of harming them, the second is a task fit only by the bravest and the boldest, those who are utterly certain in not only their belief in the Seven, but in their commitment to the Andal way of life, for such missionaries can be sent into lands where they no choice but to live amongst the people that they are there to enlighten, a thing that can just as often end with them losing themselves amongst the people...and losing their faith, too. Bringing with them the promise of salvation, the Blessed Missionaries are as often graduates of the schools and universities of the Teacher's Sons as they are backwood septons who are used to the rougher nature of life in the far countrysides and are always sent forth in groups of seven, not only for their protection against enemies, but for their protection against the risk of a wandering mind, allowing them to travel into the furthest distances and still have a connection to their homeland and the faith that they are there to preach.  
  
But the vast majority of the missionaries themselves do not travel too far, instead finding themselves in the Marches where the Ironborn, worshippers of the Drowned God, had ruled for many years and brought with them communities of settlers from their home islands, ironmen and ironwomen who had come to make new lives of their own in the bountiful lands of the Riverlands and who brought their faith with them, people who were now caught in a new land when Hoare rule collapsed and the Riverlands became the Marches. It is there that the missionaries find their greatest work, travelling the lands on their humble horses and bringing with them the words of Hugor of the Hill, going far beyond the regular sermons of the septons of the land by taking to the streets and preaching for day after day there, where their words can be heard by all in the streets and on the market square, keeping Hugor's lessons fresh in the mind just as they travel the land as roaming preachers, singing the praises of the seven as they go and anointing those who wish to renew their vows in the Seven and be truly welcomed into the fold of the Faith, never asking a question as to why they might choose to do so. But not all the works of the missionaries are so close to home and in so ordered a location, for only the majority of the missionaries are sent to the Marches to confirm the faith of the people there - the remainder are sent to wilder lands.  
  
Lands where few men dare to tread.  
  
Lands like the Mountains of the Moon where the clansmen's understanding of the Faith of the Seven is limited to what they get from the people they capture and the items they loot and where a wise missionary with a convincing tongue can bridge the chasm between one people and another and do what no sword or knight could ever do and make peace with the clans.  
  
Lands like the distant plains of Andalos, where those few Andalosi who avoid a grisly fate on King Theon's killing fields and weathered the rise and fall of Valyria and the coming of the Dothraki and who learnt to fortify their hearts as much as they fortified their homes, where a missionary might yet be able to break through their cynicism and disbelief in the nature of the divines and reforge the connections that bond the Andalosi to their kin across the Narrow Sea.  
  
Lands like the cold and uncharted wilds of the lands beyond the Wall, where no man can dare to call the Haunted Forest and the Milkwater and the Frostfangs their own, where the people have hearts of iron and ice and are not convinced easily of the virtues of the faith of the far south, but eagerly take their gifts of beer and bread and listen with true hope and curiosity at the tales of the great fields of green and the long summers where there is never the worry about putting food upon the table and where the Northmen are a bigger danger than the ones they call savages, afraid that the freefolk might make make an alliance with the Grand Septon and leave them surrounded on all sides.  
  
And with the Faith of the Seven finding its footing in the Marches again as the unquestioned faith of the people, advancing deeper into the mountains where it serves to mediate the differences between the mountain clans and the knights of the Vale with a shared faith serving as the mortar to bind together the bricks of peace, reclaiming ancient Andalos and now being glimpsed in the seven sided stars of wood and bone that their rangers find on the bodies of fallen wildlings, mayhaps they are right to be concerned of the noose that seems to be tightening around their neck.  


 

**The Sisterhood of the Blooming Rose**   


Surely amongst the most beloved of all the orders militant and otherwise, the Sisterhood of the Blooming rose is an order devoted to the Mother and to childbirth, its sworn sisters acting as midwives and tending to mothers-to-be from the moment that they realize that they are with child to the moment that they give birth, providing them with tonics and physics and advice and care, especially in the case of women who have never had children before. Every town in the south has a house of the Blooming Rose within its walls, part chapel and part birthing hall, its sisters heading out to help common women give birth in their homes or bringing them to the sister house if they can make the journey, even going so far as to try and find adoptive parents should they be unmarried and die in childbirth or taking them in themselves, and all for no fee whatsoever, the sisterhood sustained by charitable donations from the smallfolk and by the patronage of the highborn ladies who help support the expenditures of the order with the income of their dowers. For that reason, sisters known as "Court Roses" can be found in every castle, typically comprised of older and more experienced sisters who are more familiar with the challenges and dangers of the birthing bed, helping the highborn ladies of the realms bring their children into the world the way they might any other woman, as well as helping however else they can, looking after the children whilst their lady mother is busy and finding a wetnurse if there is a need for one and even treating the common childhood ailments themselves. So common is the sight of a lady leaving her children in the care of the Court Rose that there are some who believe that it was the means by which the Andal invasion truly succeeded, having raised the children they cared for to cherish the Faith, and so common is the practice that there has been something of a backlash against it in more modern times in poetry and song and art, with the very idea of a lady allowing her children to be raised by another to be seen as "unwomanly" and resulting in the practice falling out of favor in recent years.  
  
Even still, however, the Sisters of the Blooming Rose are highly respected amongst the peasantry and the nobility alike due to the nature of their work, the sisters needing to travel only with the lightest escorts provided by their allies in the Orders Militant, safe in the knowledge that all know that bringing harm upon innocent and pious women who desire only to help others being one of the handful of the "black sins", crimes from which there is simply no possibility of redemption no matter what one does. So great is the esteem placed upon the Roses that the holy war that would drive the Hoares out of the Riverlands was began when an Ironborn man raped one of the sisters at Seagard, an act that was denounced across all of Andaldom and which swiftly resulted in the Westerlands, the Reach and the Vale joining together in the Warrior's March for the Riverlands that saw the realm partitioned into the Three Marches. Yet despite their charity, however, there are laws of the Faith towards which the Sisterhood must bow, and though they have been given the privilege of being able to honor the Mother by raising families of their own, their restrictions apply to the ones to which they tend: firstly, the Faith condemns the use of moontea, which is banned in all of the Andal realms and which the brewing of which carries the penalty of the amputation of the right hand and permanent branding on the forehead, with women who have used it to be shaven bald, branded on the cheeks and wrists and belly, then ostracized from their communities to such extent that mothers and fathers would sooner think of their child dead than condemned in such a manner, rendered unmarriageable by the act. This means that Sisters of the Blooming Rose are barred from helping in such a manner for obvious reasons, but must also go so far as to report those who do or have the knowledge of its brewing so that they might be brought to trial and, if found guilty, punished accordingly. Secondly, the importance of chastity before marriage in the Andal faith and with children being born with the blessing of the Mother in the wedding bed mean that the Roses are encouraged to get the name of the father of the child of an unmarried woman so that they can either be punished accordingly in the event of adultery or be made to marry them so as to take responsibility of their actions, though some regions go further and brand both individuals upon the cheek with hot irons, giving them the mark of the fornicator.  
  
But even in such situations, there are none that bar the Sisters of the Blooming Rose from delivering a child, even in places such as White Harbor, where it is often pagan women who come to the modest Sisterhouse there for help.


	7. Section 3: The Six Kingdoms: The Words of the Kings, Lords, Courtiers and Peoples of the Six Realms

 

****  
**The Six Kingdoms  
50AAI (After Aegon's Invasion)**

****

 

 

**The Words of the Kings, Lords, Courtiers and Peoples of the Six Realms**

  
_"We swore an oath, and it is one that we shall keep. We have seen dragons greater than yours before. We have slain dragons greater than yours before. Look to the battlements and you will see their skulls. You say tomorrow that our fortress will burn and our order shall be destroyed. I say tomorrow we will finally complete our mission to wipe you and your kind from the earth and put you in the hells where you belong," -_ Ser Lucamore, Lord Commander of the Order of the Knights of the Mirror Shield, to Aegon Targaryen, stood before Balerion the Black Dread outside the walls of Mirrorstone Castle. A famous warrior in his own right, it would be said that Ser Lucamore's only true love was the order, as he always renewed his vows every seven years from the moment he joined the order until the day of his death, never leaving for even a moment in his dedication.  
  
_"Aye, you're all tree worshippers, aren't you? Your gods are made of wood and I've got an axe," -_  Galladon of the Antler, a wildling warlord who adopted the name after converting to the Faith of the Seven, shouting a taunt to his enemies as he leads his men into battle in the Haunted Forest against a rival tribe of Old God worshippers. Armed with an axe of castle forged steel from the Vale of Arryn and protected with a suit of scalemail painted in the rainbow colors of the Faith of the Seven, Galladon's successes on the battlefield would be so great that he would eventually be named King of the Antler and the Point, the first wildling to take such a title as his own, taking the ruins of Hardhome as his seat due to the port and sept there.  
_  
"Maybe...maybe I could have been a good king to those people, Visenya. I could have a been a good king. I would have been fair. I would have been honest. I would have used my dragons to bring peace and stop the wars that kill so many. Now...now I'm not so sure. Do those people even deserve a good king? Is that even what they want? Do they want a fair ruler, who would treat highborn and low the same?"_  - Aegon Targaryen, the Would-Be Conqueror, reflecting on the war with his sister-wife Visenya, five years after the failed conquest and his retreat from Westeros...and his arrival at Volantis, where the new Valyrian Freehold would be born anew for the price of three dragon eggs, one for each of the Triarchs. Lord Freeholder of the Cities of Volantis, Myr, Lys, Tyrosh and Pentos, Aegon would spend the rest of his life consolidating the newborn Freehold and binding it together, ultimately working to construct a legal framework with the aid of the magisters of the great cities to ensure that the new union would not fall apart the way his campaign in Westeros had whilst at the same time recognizing the excesses of past dragonlords in the Free Cities prior to the Doom of Valyria, resulting in a .  
  
_"So what if the Night's Watch calls for aid against the wildlings? All's the better. The only thing beyond that useless wall of ice are wildlings, and if what they say about them finding the Faith of the Seven is true, then we should be helping them, not the black brothers. And even if they aren't, if they get over the Wall then it is the Northmen that will have to deal with it, not us. Why should good, Southron men die for their failure to protect themselves? Let the heathens kill each other and at the end of the day we'll all be better off for it,"_  - a lord in the court of the Kings of the Vale, counselling his sovereign to ignore the request of the sworn brothers of the Night's Watch for coin and steel. With southron missionaries finding success and converting a number of chieftains and their clans to the faith, the black brothers would find themselves swiftly losing support in the realms of the South, who began to increasingly see them as waging war against their own brothers-in-faith and who would deny them much needed coin and manpower.  
  
_"Gods! Can you believe it, Gyles? Fifty years! Fifty years since the dragons tried to take these lands! Aye, you might have an oath to avoid drinking, but you can drink with me for this. Here here! A toast to the knights who keep us from the slaver's whip!" -_ a peasant in Gulltown, drinking in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the mirrormen's victory over Aegon Targaryen, who Westerosi began to call the the Would Be King, in response to his failed conquest.  
  
" _Yes...yes, I know. I know what they've done to us, father, and I know what we've done to them. But yesterday's enemies can be tomorrow's allies. You know that. We have to do what we have to do. For the North. Isn't that so, my bastard-brother?_ " - the Old King Torrhen, King of Winter, overheard by his sons as he speaks to himself in the crypts of Winterfell, a few days before announcing the betrothal of his great-grandson to the daughter of the King of the Iron Isles. The oldest of all the kings in Westeros, King Torrhen had been in his thirties when Aegon Targaryen landed upon the shores of Westeros and still ruled fifty years later in his eighties, an ancient of a man who seems to be finally succumbing to age, but one who remains a giant amongst the North for the sheer length of his rule, the respect he commands and his strong will.  
  
_"My brother-husband forged this realm from broken pieces and ashes and he did what you, what none of you, could do. He built a land to call his own, a land where we could walk straight again and with our pride back, and now you damned, bickering idiots are going to end up tearing it apart again with your stupid games of - of **coins**!"_  - a furious Visenya Targaryen unleashing her wroth upon the Magister-Freeholders, wealthy merchantmen who had bought their way into a seat on the newborn Freeholderate; though the new nation took heavily from the lessons of the Valyrian Freehold that preceded it, there were many changes necessary to its structure in order to make it functional after the Doom and to ensure that it would be able to expand to cover as much of Essos as possible. The greatest of these is that, though the nation is still ruled by three Triarchs in accordance to Valyrian tradition, these positions are filled by the Lords Freeholder, who are elected from all available dragonriders by the Elector Freeholders, the greatest of the Freeholders in the nation and who were themselves supposed to be elected from the common landholders of the nation, with each city having an assembly of its own for lower government and each having one elector who was himself the head of that city, but who themselves were often a position bought into by the wealthy or taken with great reluctance after most other candidates were assassinated in political infighting.  
  
_"It takes a strong man to be a soldier in the armies of the Warrior. Strong in body, certainly, but strong in heart and faith, too. Any man might become a warrior if they train hard enough, that is true, and there are many who swear themselves to the vows of chivalry and honor. Few are those who actually live up to those ideals. If you are able to stand here before me, on sacred ground, before the Seven Sided Star of your forefathers, then you are one of those men. I welcome you all to the Brotherhood of the Septry Knights," -_  the Grand Master of the Sacred Brotherhood of the Septry Knights, personally greeting new recruits at Gulltown and welcoming them into the order for the first of the seven days of their training and initiation.  
  
_"...and in the south lies the Stormreach, a mighty kingdom indeed. What is the ruling family of this realm? Gardener-Durrandon? Correct. And what is their crest? No, but that is a common misconception. It is a hand holding a stag. And who is the leader of the realm? King Mern XII Gardener-Durrandon, correct. Now, onto the Vale. If you get them all right, you get a sweet," -_ a learned member of the Teacher's Sons, educating the youngest son of the King of the Rock in the heraldry of the great houses of the realms.  
  
_"...dark days indeed when heathens come to my halls as guests, but, well, let us get this over with. What is you want, Royce? You're not asking for my permission to marry another one of those Stark wenches again, are you?"_ \- King Ronnel, moments before being given a list of requests by the Royce's of Runestone and a number of other houses that could trace their heritage back to dynasties of the First Men, in response to growing mistreatment of noble First Men families by their Andal neighbours, who press ancestral claims and question their loyalty.  
  
_"Aye, now you listen to me, and listen well, boy. Stay clear of any knight whose grown old where others died young, else you'll be following them and not him. Only the best fighters ever get to grow old," -_ Prince Artos Stark, Protector of the Moat, speaking to his grand-nephew during a strike in the western marches of the Vale of Arryn. A born marauder, Prince Artos would often carry out periodic raids in the lands of the south, intended to keep the southrons off balance and ensure that the local ground would be difficult to assemble an army on, something that only served to inflame the anger of the Freys and other local lords against them and seek closer ties with their own overlords in the Vale.  
_  
"A few centuries ago they called this land the Riverlands. Do you know what they call it now? The Marches, because every time the kingdoms go to war they march through here. More blood has been shed on these fields than anywhere else in Westeros, twice, no, thrice over, and it just goes on and on and **on,**  with it being our sons fighting and dying for foreign kings every single time. What is even the point of it anymore? Of rising from my bed to await the time when my castle is sieged or I am sent off to die in a war that I want no part of or to have another son taken from me?" _Lord Edmyn Tully, Lord of Riverrun and a sworn vassal to the King of the Rock, confessing his grief to his Court Septon on a cold evening.  
_  
"I was born in these greenlands, heathen. You shall be buried in them,"_  - a Knight Captain of the Septry Knights, moments before caving in an Ironborn raider's breastplate during a raid against the septry of Seagard.  
  
_"It is funny how often I've heard young men asking that. No, you need not swear off marriage to be a knight in the Orders Militant. Any man may join to serve seven years with any of the brotherhoods and see if that suits them well, after which they can return home and wear the honors of the order still as a man who has served, find a wife and sire sons and daughters, then return if they so please. Our gods are fathers; it'd be foolish if the men sworn to their service were not allowed to be the same,"_  - a Knight-Commander of the Sacred Brotherhood of the Septry Knights feasting at a tournament and seeking out any young men who might be interested in serving the order. With men needing to serve only for seven years in the Orders Militant, it was common for the sons of the noble families to be sent to join one of the brotherhoods so that they might gain true experience as strong, independent men, as well as to gain the fame and respect of a man who has served the Faith.  
  
_"The bloody Northmen never thought of this, now did they?"_ \- a Winged Knight of the Vale of Arryn, after a shipful of Seven worshipping wildlings were brought to Gulltown with the mission of hunting down the Old Gods worshipping mountain clans. Able to cross rough and broken terrain with ease and experienced in the savage and bloody warfare of fighting in the mountains from living in the cold and deadly Frostfangs, wildling trackers would be used to deadly effect against the mountain clans of the Vale of Arryn by the Andal houses, who saw them as a way to crush the clans once and for all and were eager to allow them to take the lands that had once belonged to the clansmen so long as they kept the king's peace and made no trouble, terms that those of the Free Folk to have came so far south were eager to keep, awed by the bountiful food and endless warmth of the southern kingdoms.  
  
_"It is better that a hundred innocents die by our hand than a single maegi be allowed to walk free. That is the tenant of our order, brother, and that is what has kept the realms of Andaldom safe from skinchangers, sorcerors and fleshsmiths alike since our founding. If they have not bartered away their souls to evil, if they are innocent, then when they stand before the Lord and the Lawgiver they will look into their souls and see their truest selves and welcome them home. If they are innocent, we will pay for it ourselves when the time comes. That is the responsibility of our order. We must strike because we must, but we do not strike lightly. We know what it is that we do, but we must do it all the same so that others may live in peace. That is our vow. Do not forget that, brother,_ " - A Knight-Captain of the Order of the Star-Eyes, speaking to a recruit under his command as three women are hanged at the gallows with a measure of mercy - a lead block - attached to their feet to ease their suffering. Executed for the crime of lying with a skinchanger and the serious possibility of carrying the taint of their blood in any unborn children that they might carry as a result of their coupling, such executions are common when the Star-Eyes come.  
  
_"We cannot go on like this forever, my sweet husband...I hear it every time we go to court. They always say kingdoms, never kingdom. Two kingdoms, two crowns, one king. If the Stormreach is to survive, we need to change something. We need to make it one kingdom, with one crown and one king,"_  - Ceryse Hightower, to her husband, King Mern Gardener-Durrandon. So great a beauty as to have been called the Jewel of the South in her time,  
  
_"The lion wakes and the world shall see his might, that I promise you,"_  - King Loreon VI, overheard through the door by a servant whilst speaking to his beloved wife in his solar. Though King Loreon's father spent his entire reign stabilizing the Westerlands after the disaster of his own father, King Loreon would find himself in command of a revitalized Westerlands, stronger than it had been in centuries,  
  
" _This is the skull of Vaerumax, the personal mount of the Lord Freeholder Jaehaerion Volaerys, who escaped the Doom of Valyria by the fortune of being in Lys at the time of the fall and who fled here, to our shores, to escape the blades of rioting slaves. He found no safe respite here, for our order slew him in the Vale of Arryn, when he dismounted to make camp for the evening for rest. The death of its master enraged the beast, and the chase went on for hours before the great monster flew into our trap and was crippled by a boulder as it passed through a narrow valley and crashed into the ground, back broken, being finished with a lance through the eye by Knight-Commander Alester Appleton, of Serwyn's Spear in the Mountains of the Moon, a strong chapter indeed in their day. Examine it freely, recruits, and remember the history of our order, a history that you will be adding to personally with every deed you do,_ " - Galen, a graduate of the Teacher's Sons and master of the library for Mirrorstone Castle and thus caretaker of the history of the Knights of the Mirror Shield and perhaps one of the largest collections of dragonlore in the world, allowing new recruits to examine the black skull of a one hundred and twenty five year old dragon, so big that a man could stand within the space of its jaws and be consumed whole and with teeth as long as swords.  
  
" _Tell me, friends, what troubles you so? Does your lord not honor his vows? Does he not aid you in your plight? Speak, and we shall ensure he carries out his obligations to you,_ " - a Knight-Captain of the Warrior-Saint, asking the common peasantry of a small village on the edge of the domains of the Errols of Haystack Hall, where they would carry the twin complaints of a broken well and a small band of brigands hiding in the Kingswood, the personal forest of the old Storm Kings, who had stolen their seed grain for winter. Sworn protectors of the commonfolk of Westeros, the Sons of the Warrior-Saint would ride into the wood to personally hunt down the brigands and return what was stolen to the villagers and would cause Lord Errol to send forth a party of his own builders to mend the well as quickly as possible before riding on, their duty done.  
  
_"...aye, now that's something new,"_  - Septon Jonothor of the Blessed Missionaries beyond the Wall, upon seeing a giant for the first time. Having traveled as far north as distant Thenn to bring the word of Hugor to what he was sure was another race of men, not even the Knight-Captain of the Septry-Knights at Hardhome or the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch would be able to find any trace of him again but the tattered remains of his copy of the Seven Sided Star...yet the later appearance of great stone stars each made of seven columns leaves some to think that he would have some success in his quest.  
  
_"Now now, my boy, the gods did not give us the ability to make reason for nothing, and there is nothing that a disciplined mind cannot accomplish. Remember your studies of the sacred seven and approach the problem with an open mind and make reason of it with your senses and the answer will come to you soon enough,"_ \- the rector of the university of Oldtown to a younger student contemplating the way by which light be broken into seven colors by water and glass alike. The sacred seven as taught by the Teacher's Sons were not the gods of the Faith, though it is common knowledge that there is certainly a connection between the two, but the seven arts of grammar, logic, rhetoric, geometry, theology, astronomy and arithmetic that form the backbone of natural philosophy and which all graduates of any university in the southern realms of Westeros are expected to be proficient, as well as specialized in a multitude of other arts such as medicine, alchemy and geology, to name a few.  
  
_"The Just Maid is more than just a sword, brother, it is the wrath of the Seven incarnate, the blade of judgement before which no man, steel or beast can stand. It is the holiest relic in all of Andaldom, the ultimate proof of the existence of the Seven-who-are-One and the truth of Hugor's teachings, but more, it was given to a soul as cherished as Hugor himself, alongside many other pieces. Be honored, my friend. You are to join the Swords of Morne and join our quest,"_  - the Grand Master of the Order of the Warrior-Saint, welcoming a new brother to the order of the Swords of Morne, a group of seven elite knights who have the task of seeking the relics that Ser Galladon of Morne had been gifted by the Seven-who-are-One countless centuries before, items that are said will lead to his return to the realms of Andaldom should be they united again and items that are said to be incredibly powerful in their own right, like the Seven Clothed Banner of Morne, which will render any army that marches beneath its seven tails invincible on the battlefield, or the Vintner's flagon, which makes the carrier and all those near him immune to hunger or thirst.


	8. Section 3: The Six Kingdoms: The Kings and Courts of the Six Kingdoms, Part 1

**The Kings and Courts of the Six Kingdoms  
The Kingdom of the North**   


**The Royal Family of the North:  
King in the North: **Torrhen Stark VI, the Old King, Lord of Winterfell and the King of Winter. The last of the kings to have been a grown man when Aegon announced his plans of conquest over the Seven Kingdoms, Torrhen Stark's long reign that began when he was in his thirties and continues now in his eighties, making it amongst the longest reigns any Westerosi king, yet alone a Stark, has ever had.  
  
 **Queen Consort:** Bellena Glover, a woman twenty years her husband's younger due to the young Torrhen's desire to only wed when he had to, Queen Bellena is content to spend her twilight years at Winterfell, descending to the kitchens to keep herself busy baking sweets for her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren whilst her good-daughter takes over the responsibilities of queendom on her behalf.  
  
 **Prince of Winterfell:** Brandon Stark, a man in his middle ages and who takes to the battlefields in his father's stead. With sons and grandsons of his own, the succession of what will be King Brandon XXIV is undoubtedly secure, though some wonder whether or not he will die before his father. Gradually taking up more and more of the daily work of running the kingdom from his aging and weakening father, others instead say that Brandon became king years ago, even if the crown has yet to be placed upon his brow.  
  
 **Princess Consort** : Amabel Bolton, a woman now past her childbearing days and known to have never truly loved her husband, though their five children are proof enough that both put aside whatever feelings they might have had in order to make their union a working one. More of a friend of her Brandon than not, the two have developed a certain respect for one another over their many long years together, a trust that sees both husband and wife willing to take the advice of the other.  
  
 **Prince of the Moat:**  Artos Stark, Lord-Protector of Moat Cailin, King Torrhen's secondborn son and the appointed guardian of the lone path into the North by land. The most martial of all of the Old King's sons, Artos manages an aggressive defense, leading the occasional raid into the Vale's western marches in order to prevent the buildup of strength necessary to break through the North's defenses by land. Such acts of marauding, however, no matter how they might be justified as "striking before we are struck" have done little to thaw relations between the North and the Vale of Arryn...and much to drive the Freys and the rest of the marches further into the arms of the Eyrie. It is generally expected that the two kingdoms will be at war sometime in the next decade, though the exact timing of when the two clash and whether the war shall be fought over the Sisters remains to be seen, with only the fact that they will have the support of the knightly orders being a certainty.  
  
 **The Black Prince:** Rickard Stark, the second youngest of Torrhen Stark's surviving sons and the fourth to be born, Rickard followed in his good-uncles footsteps and has taken the black and joined the Night's Watch, where he now serves as Lord Commander following the peaceful passing of his Hoare predecessor. An angry and wrothful man, he has little mercy for the wildlings beyond the Wall, and though it is expected of any Lord Commander that they will lead strikes against the men of the Haunted Forest in order to stop them from marching on the Wall, rumors persist that the Black Prince's strikes go above and beyond such things, with it whispered that the Lord Commander relishes in his ability to hunt the most dangerous prey of all: men.  
  
 **Prince of Krakens and Shores** : The last of Torrhen's sons and born during the waning weeks of winter, Prince Eddard Stark has the responsibility of managing the royal woods at Sea Dragon Point, whose timbers were once the backbone of the North's naval power and which now has the equally vital task of sustaining the fleets of their alliance with the Iron Islands, as well as building the realm's stocks of firewood for when winter comes again.  
 **  
Princess of Snow:** Lyandra Stark, the last of his children and the youngest. Married to Jon Mormont, a high match for the Lords of Bear Island and one that is the result of the previous Lord of Bear Island saving Torrhen's life from a wildling raider whilst on a hunting trip many years before, being permanently crippled by the loss of his axe arm in the process.  
  
 **Lord's Council**  
  
 **The King's Hand:** Lord Eddard Bolton, King Torrhen's nephew and a man famed for his jovial, welcoming nature. A close friend of the Prince of the Moat, the King's Hand - an ancestral title going back to before the Andal Invasion where the Hand was the King's personal bodyguard - works hard to ensure that the North stands united against its enemies, lest it fall into civil war and provide the south the opportunity they need to complete what Argos Sevenstar started so long before and deliver the North into the hands of the Andals. To do this, he works to strengthen the alliance between the North and the Iron Islands, perhaps the only ally that the North can truly depend upon, smoothing over past slights and ensuring that the houses of the North, especially those that once made battle against the Ironmen, are able to set aside their anger and keep the king's peace. He's also the king's own torturer, a work that some say should clash with his warm and friendly nature, but which others say makes it all the more unnerving to be on his table...  
 **  
Coinmaster:** Lord Waymar Manderly, Lord of White Harbor and an anointed knight of the Seven. More familiar with the nature of tariffs, taxation and trade than any other Northman thanks to the great port city under his control, Waymar serves as the master of the North's treasury, overseeing the minting of the silver coins that are spent all over the realm...and serving as a much needed bridge between the North and the South in times of tension, the Lords of the Vale more comfortable speaking with one of their own than with the Starks who they have made battle against for countless generations. This use of the Manderlys as a bridge between North and South has been credited on a number of occasions of preventing another Northern War led by the Orders Militant, and though relations between the North and the South are cool at best, they are functional.  
  
 **Lawmaster:** Lord Arnolf Karstark, Lord of Karhold and Protector of the Eastern Shore, a cold and steady stoic of the court, devoted to his duties, the Lawmaster serves as both the maker of law and the one who manages the court in the absence of the king, carrying out justice and weighing the petitions of the poor and the nobleborn alike. Though Lord Arnolf shows it little, those who are closest to him know that he genuinely enjoys his work, the Lord of Karhold striving to do his part to create a just and honest world where the lords of the land are truly bound to the law as much as the common folk are, one petition at a time, though his dream of smashing the Right of the First Night has yet to come to fruition.  
 **  
Spymaster:** Lord Walton Glover, Lord of Deepwood Motte, the son of one of the King's most trusted friends, but all the more shadowy than his predecessor. A natural born sneak, rumor has it that Lord Walton learnt the art of the spy as a boy, sneaking out to watch the women of the court get changed, but that is a rumor that the Lord Walton denies with laughter, saying that he wouldn't need to sneak up on them to see them undressed, leading some to say that he is a charmer, using his gile to make men's wives turn against them and give him their secrets. A falconer of no little amount of fame, never missing a strike with his bird, some whisper that Lord Walton Glover has the gift and curse of skinchanging, using it to spy upon the realm's enemies and any traitors that might be within the ranks, whilst others still say that his patronage of brothels is more simple pleasure, but that he uses whores as a means to gain information that men would otherwise never reveal. Regardless of what one believes, no one knows anything for sure about his network of informants and spies, neither who they are or what they are or where they might be or how many, making it all too apparent that he is well suited for the task.  
 **  
Warmaster:** Victarion Greyjoy, proudly called the Kingslayer by his kin and the Northmen alike. Third brother to the head of his house and a soldier loyal to the Hoare kings, Victarion was once little more than the ambassador for the Iron Islands in the North, sent as part of their alliance to speak on the behalf of the Iron Islands just as a Northman was sent to Great Wyk to speak for Winterfell, but when wild Skagos rebelled against the North only to beg for its aid as the King Beyond the Wall mustered his forces with the aim of conquering the isles, Victarion went with the army with the aim of seeing how the Northmen made battle...only to end up taking command himself when the previous Warmaster, the Lord Theon Umber, was slain by a poisoned arrow. Well experienced with fighting on shores and near bodies of water, Victarion would use the straits of the Bay of Seals as a defensive wall, but knowing that the wildlings wouldn't cross if there was opposition, left a carefully disguised opening in the lines for them to exploit, counting on the wildlings being too unfamiliar with coastal battle to realize the trap...and succeeding, the King Beyond the Wall leading the invasion into what he thought a weakspot, but was truly a cage that Victarion closed on him.  
  
The massacre was said to have broken the back of the wildlings for a century, perhaps more, the King Beyond the Wall's head hoisted into the air midway through the battle by Victarion himself before being hurled into the ranks, followed after by that of the Magnar of Thenn and the chieftains of four ice river clans. Credited with the victory by men high and low, his promotion to Warmaster was assured, making him the king's chief adviser in military matters.  
 **  
Grand Maester** : Brandon, of the Northern Citadel, bearer of a chain with links forged of black iron, bronze, yellow gold, iron, silver and, most notably, Valyrian steel, it is the silver link that is the greatest in the chain of the aging Grand Maester, who busies himself with the study of plants grown within glass houses. Part of the exiled order of the Maesters of the Citadel, who were driven from the south at blade point and many of their brothers slain with the use of the heretic's mask, Grand Maester Brandon is the last of the maesters to have any knowledge of the men who had first gone into exile many years before, having been taught under the last of the Oldtown Maesters prior to their purging by the Brotherhood of the Star Eyes. Though much of the order's knowledge was lost with the sacking of the Citadel, the Order is slowly rebuilding itself at Winterfell, where they were welcomed with as much curiosity as uncertainty by the Starks, the Northmen having little love for the Faith of the Seven and willing to take them in when no one else would, but in the years since, the Order has taken on a distinctly Northern flavor, using the texts of the library at Winterfell to rebuild a collection that has no little amount of praise for the Kings of Winter to ensure that they do not lose royal support.  
  


**The Kingdom of the Vale**

  
**Royal Family  
  
King of Mountain and Vale: **Ronnel Arryn, King of Mountain and Vale, Defender of the Vale, Lord of the Eyrie, Lord Protector of the Three Sisters and Guardian of the Sept of Gulltown, the young Ronnel had been little more than a toddler during the time the three headed dragon came to the shores of Westeros as a conqueror, his regent-mother kept the realm independent despite Aegon's dreams of conquest. Now counted amongst the oldest of the kings of Westeros, indeed, second only to the Old King Torrhen himself, Ronnel's reign has surely began to enter its twilight years, the aging king no longer descending the Giant's Lance with as much regularity as he once had, yet even an old and aging falcon can still fly and many of his bannermen have been caught by surprise on those days when he comes to visit their halls, the king fighting to keep his age from catching up with him,  
  
 **Queen Consort:** Sansa Corbray, King Ronnel's second bride, the young lady Sansa is precisely that, young, being less than half the king's age at twenty one namedays and a woman who would have perhaps been a better match for his grandson than to himself, the widowed King Ronnel was eager to take her hand for himself in what others call another battle in his desperate struggle to remain young, wedding a young woman the way he might have done twenty years before. Currently childless - and not for a lack of trying on Ronnel's part - Sansa is considered no real threat to the inheritance of either of Ronnel's children due to the sheer gap in age between them, though it is the belief of the Court Rose that she may well be in the earliest days of pregnancy herself, something that cheers the grim woman little.  
  
 **The Queen Mother** : Sharra Arryn, still alive, though delirious and often confused due to the ravages of age against her mind. Feeble and old and sometimes unable to even make her way out of bed in the morning or even recognize her beloved son, Sharra's greatest days are behind her, yet Ronnel has made certain to ensure that his mother remains comfortable in last years, even going so far as to make sure that his heir's son, who is also named Ronnel and who resembles his grandfather a great deal, remains around her to give her the comfort of a familiar face. Currently bedridden with a chill, it is expected that she will breath her last in but a few weeks, something that would see the king lose his mother in a time of uncertainty within the heart of the realm...though some say that mayhaps her death will be a benefit, whispering in their wine that it is her situation that has instilled King Ronnel with so great a fear of growing old and encouraged his strange actions of doing things that younger men might.  
  
 **Prince of the Moon:**  Robert Arryn, Keeper of the Gates of the Moon and a Knight of the Brotherhood of the Star-Eyes in his own right, Lord Robert is a lord in his thirties and with sons and daughters of his own and who has the traditional responsibility of looking after the Gates of the Moon, the true castle of the Arryns and the place where they gather their strength in times of war with the Eyrie instead serving as more of a symbol of Arryn might and a palace than as a fortress. Strong, confident and of unquestioned faith - rumor has it that Robert Arryn has even picked up the unusual trait of using a cilice, a chain of iron covered in hooks, to self punish in times of temptation or sin, an act of piety that even the Grand Septon would consider extreme and which can only be found amongst the most fanatical members of the Star-Eyes - Robert Arryn is heavily favored by the Andal families of the Vale, who see him and his piety as a way for the Vale to march out of its recent disorder and back into the light and into a realm that the Seven would be able to truly smile upon once more. Though his dedication is well demonstrated by how he continues to take part in the actions of the order in which he served even after long leaving, it is just as well shown by his dedication to charitable works, particularly the Alms Tax, which he wishes to make all the more accurate by giving the Faith the right to check the ledgers of the lords of the Vale and the royal treasury itself so as to get an exact cut.  
  
 **Princess Royal:** Alysanne Arryn, the King's firstborn daughter, a woman married and of twenty four years of age, the Princess Royal is more accurately known as Lady Alysanne Belmore following her wedding six years before to the heir of Strongsong, whose father died barely a year after in a tragic ambush by mountain clansmen who claimed his life during a simple hunting trip. More fertile than her mother, Lady Alysanne is the mother of two children, though two who rarely ever get the chance to visit their kin at the Eyrie and the Gates of the Moon owing to the sheer danger of travelling on the roads in more recent years, something that comes as a humiliation for the falcon kings and something that has caused the Winged Knights and the Sons of the Warrior-Saint to take to the roads in order to keep them clear and safe, with limited success now that the mountain clans have become all the more bold and terrifying due to their possession of castle forged steel.  
  
 **Princess of the Vale:** Sarya Arryn, the King's secondborn daughter and a a maiden of nineteen years, the young lady Sarya was supposed to be betrothed to the heir of the Twins so as to secure the lasting allegiance of the Marches for the Arryns, yet such a betrothal demands that she and a representative of her family meet her groom to be and pass judgement on whether or not he is worthy of her hand and maidenhood...which would mean travelling far from the great battlements of the Gates of the Moon.  
  
 **Prince of the Bloody Gate:** Harold Arryn, a youth of sixteen years, already wed to the woman of the same years and whom had been his beloved since the two were old enough to know what love was: Morya Royce. Born in simpler times when the tensions between the Andals and the First Men of the Vale were lesser, the young Harold is a youth who has already proven his worth on the tourney fields as a skilled and honorable combatant, one who will genuinely avoid any dishonorable or shameful tactics and one who often gives much of his winnings away to the peasantry, knowing that he needs the coin little due to his royal birth. Expected to go off to serve seven years with any of the Orders Militant, with most assuming that he would join the Blessed Sons of the Warrior-Saint, the unstable situation at home where the mountain clans are being used as pieces of a proxy war inside the very heart of the kingdom has prohibited such an action...and given him ample time to grow all the closer to his beloved bride, something that has served to make him into a staunch defender of the rights of the old families of the Vale.  
  
 **The Falcon's Court and Council  
  
High Steward of the Vale: **Ser Robert Arryn, Ronnel's son and heir. As is tradition in the Vale of Arryn, the Keeper of the Gates of the Moon is always the High Steward of the Vale due to their role as the caretaker of the Arryn lands, and as tradition, the role is given to the heir apparent so that they might gain precious experience for when they succeed to the wierwood throne. Devoted to the Faith of the Seven and uncertain of whether there are any who are truly free of sin in the world of men, the appointment of a man who would be considered extreme in any of the other worlds to the position of High Steward has done little to reduce tensions and much to inflame them.  
  
 **Master of the Royal Treasury and Mint:** Ser Dunaver Grafton, a trusted friend of the King due to having grown up alongside him at the Eyrie during the regency, Ser Dunaver might not have the financial knowledge that other men of the Vale might, but he has something even more valuable for any man who might call themselves a master of coin: his unquestioned trust. The King's closest friend, Ser Dunaver is perhaps the only man in the entire kingdom able to talk him out of the rash choices he makes in his bid to seem younger and more lively than he truly is, even if such discussions are more often a battle lost than not, but even more importantly, he counsels the king with the aim of preventing the Vale from falling into civil war, trying hard to balance the two factions and arguing that any family found to have supported any of the mountain clans in any way be brought to justice. It is a view that makes him little popular at court, as it would in many ways mean a continuation of the status quo and all its flaws, something that pleases neither side, but in some ways it is perhaps one of the only things stopping the war being fought by the mountain clans from growing into a war fought directly by the nobles themselves.  
  
 **Master of Laws and Courts:** Ser Jeffory Corbray, Sansa Corbray's eldest brother, Ser Jeffory is a man who earnt his place on the royal council not due to his abilities, which are reasonable at best, nor due to great connections with the rest of the council men to speak on us behalf, many of whom had little knowledge of who he was owing to a general lack of any achievements of any real notoriety, good or bad, but because he was a relative of the new queen and was given the posting as part of the marriage deal. Ser Jeffory is thus a man who is exceptional only in his unexceptionality, the very definition of mediocre and the lacking of presence, well and truly immersed in a world beyond his depth, and so much so that Lord Cleos once made the joke that he could be replaced with a training mannequin during a meeting and none would know the difference. Still, his presence at court is a reassuring one for his younger sister, who at times finds herself lost in the cold and often grim world of the Eyrie, so far above the rest of the world and so devoid of the sounds and sights and smells of life in a more earthly castle, and his lack of desire to risk destabilizing the Vale of Arryn through rash actions makes him appealing to both Andal and First Men houses, who see him as a potential ally.  
  
 **Master of the Royal Harriers:** Ser Alesander Waynwood, a Knight-Captain of the Star-Eyes and a close friend of Prince Robert, the two having served together for many years during their time in the order and who joking calls him his hunting dog after helping him into a position the small council...and who is often reminded by Ser Alesander to not let his righteous fury for the enemies of the Faith and Andaldom turn into wanton bloodshed, the Waynwood captain perhaps one of the few men able to rein him in and certainly amongst the only ones that he truly admires. Though Ser Alesander is perhaps the very definition of an Andal knight and certainly has no taste for skinchangers or mad clansmen, he has no desire to see the realm torn apart in civil war and made into easy pickings for its enemies. Master of the realm's spies and informants, named harriers due to how they stay low to the ground just as the bird does, he often uses what power he has to ensure that the war the mountain clans are waging against one another continues as a stalemate, so as to prevent either side from gaining an advantage and forcing the hand of their secret benefactors and to buy time for negotiation.  
  
 **Lord Admiral:** Lord Cleos Sunderland, Lord of the Three Sisters and leader of the fleets of the Vale, the first time nay man of the Three Sisters has ever held so great a rank. With the Order of the Seven SAils having established a permanent port of their own the Three Sisters have been revitalized, the great number of workers necessary to man the port providing good, well paying and consistent work that has served to drag thousands out of the gutters of crime and smuggling and piracy and into honest work that has seen the islands emerge from the long poverty and destitution caused by the Rape of the Three Sisters by the armies of the North. The Sistermen, benefiting greatly from their long history of smuggling, fishing and pearl diving, are by far the most inclined to seafaring of all the peoples of the Vale of Arryn, even more so than those of Gulltown and perhaps even more so than the Ironborn on the other side of the Narrow Sea, and some whisper that the Sistermen might even be descended from mermaids or other people of the sea, an attempt to explain the great abundance of webbed hands and feet amongst their peoples, webbing that even the Lord Admiral possesses...and which many a Northman on the eastern shores claim to have seen gripping the axes and swords of the pirates who have been raiding them in recent years, the men of the Three Sisters eager to get vengeance on the North for the incredible slaughter that they had been subjected to in the name of the direwolf's ambition.  
  
 **Court Septon:** Jon of Gulltown, the newest member of the Arryn council and the youngest as well, the young Jog is a graduate of the university of Gulltown, perhaps the best school of septons in the Seven Kingdoms, and immensely well educated in matters of the Faith as a result, if perhaps lacking in experience. Still settling into the role of Court Septon and working his way through the many papers and letters that had belonged to his predecessor prior to his passing, Jon is something of an unknown factor in the royal court, as he simply hasn't been present in the highest echelons of power long enough for any of its members to have any real idea of where he stands in regards to the present situation within the Vale of Arryn, something made even more difficult do to how he is barely seen in court at all, due to the need to safely transfer his collection of belongings and texts from the place of his study to the royal court so that he might be of the greatest assistance to the falcon king possible.  
 **  
Court Rose:** Melicent of Braavos, one of many people of foreign birth to have converted to the Faith of the Seven and crossed the Narrow Sea to join the others and be welcomed with open arms, the young and beautiful Lady Melicent has the responsibilities of helping the many women of the Arryn family with their children, either in the birthing bed or in the cradle, as well as helping King Ronnel by serving as an interpreter due to her fluent knowledge of High Valyrian and several of the bastard dialects of the Free Cities...though some whisper that she helps King Ronnel stay warm at night as well. Dressed in the long, flowing reds of the Sisterhood and looking little older than thirty with a full head of long red hair and a beautiful ruby necklace that some say only adds to her beauty, Melicent is as much an adviser at the court as she is a servant of the Arryn line...but rumor has it that she has somehow managed to draw the attention of the Star-Eyes and the heir...  
 **  
High Lordships and Positions of Importance  
  
Lord of the Western Marches: **Serwyn Frey, Lord of the Twins, once a Knight-Captain in the Wandering Pilgrims and whose financial knowledge benefits him still, Lord Serwyn might not be amongst the most martial of the of the lords of the Marches, but is certainly the wealthiest and whose understanding of trade and finance feeds into a comprehension of logistics that none of his counterparts in the other realms can dare to match. Such knowledge and wealth has allowed him to construct a series of roads throughout the lands of which he is the crown's appointed overseer, letting trade flow quickly and freely throughout the realm and accelerated all the more by barge ports up and down the length of the Green Fork to allow great cargoes of wood or stone or other goods to be moved quickly and easily, and the blossoming of trade everywhere from the Twins to the Saltpans is proof enough of his success. Benefiting greatly from the protection of the the Lords of the Vale who keep the Northmen at bay and with no taste for martial matters of his own, there's little question of where Lord Serwyn's loyalties lie, the Freys contributing a great deal to the royal treasury and doing so with pride.  
  
 **Lord Commander of the Brotherhood of the Winged Knights:** Ser Jonos Arryn, the King's younger brother and his bodyguard, albeit one who has been questioned over his own personal ambitions on a number of occasions only to be found innocent each and every time. As is tradition in the lands of the Vale of Arryn, the Lord Commander of the Brotherhood of the Winged Knights has the task of carrying and protecting the king's banner in battle and serving as the commander of his armies in times of war, and it is a job that the Lord Commander does well, carefully honing the Winged Knights - named such for the feathered frames of wood that they keep on their backs when going into battle, lined with feathers from ever greater birds of prey, with the greater the bird the higher the rank - through drill and regular training into perhaps the single greatest cavalry force in the Seven Kingdoms, an unstoppable blade able to smash through even the most courageous of infantrymen, though such elitism has cost them the numbers of their counterparts in the other realms and makes them the smallest of all the orders of royal knights. Even still, the Winged Knights are the king's own retinue and serve as his bodyguards and banner bearers in times of war, helping their king with matters of strategy and tactics before going into battle at his side beneath the falcon banners, none of which are cherished more than the banner of Ser Artys Arryn, the first of the Arryn kings and who flew the banner during his conquest and at the Battle of the Seven Stars, making it by far the most treasured relic of the Vale, brought forth only in times of the most desperate need from the small sept of the Gates of the Moon.  
  


**The Kingdom of the Westerlands**

**Royal Family**  
  
 **King of the Rock:** Loreon Lannister VI, King of the Rock and the Westerlands, Shield of Lannisport, Protector of the Red Fork, Defender of Ironman's Bay and Knight-Commander of the Knights of the Holy Hills of Andalos, King Loreon is the sixth king to carry the Loreon name...and the first in many to have been worthy of the title. A born warrior and heir to King Loren I, who had spent his reign consolidating the Westerlands and rebuilding Lannister power after the chaos left behind when his own father - King Tommen II - disappeared without a trace after sailing towards Valyria with the intent to claim whatever riches or knowledge had been spared by the destruction of the great city, losing the ancestral Valyrian steel blade of their line in the process. Thanks to his father's efforts, symbolized best in how he died in a landslide whilst touring the realm to ensure that it was all finally at peace and prospering again, the young king sits upon a revitalized throne...and for the first time in many generations, the Westerlands is finally turning its attentions to matters outside of its domains.  
 **  
Queen-Consort of the Rock:** Jeyne Westerling, the beautiful and young bride of the King of the Rock and the mother of his four sons and adoptive mother of his bastard daughter, Jeyne - though not the most cunning of the brides that were on offer to him - has managed to win her husband's heart with her compassion and famous charity, using the great wealth of Casterly Rock to ease the lives of the peasantry across the entirety of the Westerlands, with none toasting to the health of their king more or cheering the Lannister name louder than those that she has helped raise from the gutters. Indeed, so great is the love that she and her husband share that the Queen has forgoed the use of her own, regal chambers in favor of staying in his alongside him in a way that few wives ever do with their husbands, something that has surely contributed to the many children she has born into the world despite the few years of marriage, as well as love that has seen Loreon give her family no little amount of support, including an investment into the construction of vineyards there to replace their failing incomes. Already having birthed four sons in seven years of union, Queen Jeyne's great fertility promises to strengthen the Lannister line a great deal just as it causes the Court Septon to praise her as an example of how the divines will give their favor to those who help others, something that has made charity amongst the nobility a common thing in the hills and mountains of the Westerlands.  
  
 **Lion Prince:**  Tommen Lannister, to be crowned as King Tommen III Lannister when he rises to take the throne himself, the young prince of seven namedays was surely conceived on the king and queen's wedding night, being born nine months to the day after the bedding was completed. Heir to the Kingdom of the Rock and carrying the traditional title for the position of Lion Prince, the young Tommen has been sent eastwards to the court of Raventree Hall to serve as Lord Brynden Blackwood's page and squire, learning the ways of lordship and war from one of the King's closest friends and in a place where he won't have too much special treatment due to his high birth.  
  
 **Prince of the Gate** : Gerold Lannister, the second born of the Lannister children, Prince Gerold would have the responsibility of overseeing the defenses and fortifications of Casterly Rock's main entrance, were he not five years old. Though boys of his age are often sent out to page, the Queen-Consort managed to bargain with her husband for her sons to be kept at the Rock till the age of seven, saying that it is a holy number and that the Faith will surely smile upon it more...and give her more time to spend with her children before they are sent away to grow up without her except for the seven times a year in which they might return to the Rock for the most important festivals and holidays of the year. Though that would normally be a family matter, it has raised the question of who will become the guardian of the second Prince of the Rock till he is of age to return, with there being many a rumor about who the King and Queen might favor; some suggest the Reynes of Castamere, stalwart allies of the Lannisters of Casterly Rock and the family of the Lion's Paw, others still suggest that he might go to the Braxs or the Farmans, with others still suggesting that he will be sent to the Leffords of the Golden Tooth to learn from the masters of defense themselves, as is tradition for the Princes of the Gate.  
  
 **Prince of the Port** : Tygett Lannister, the twin brother of...  
  
 **Prince of the Mines** : Gerion Lannister, the two year old boys identical to one another. The youngest of the growing Lannister family at only a little more than two years old, even their mother would have trouble telling them apart were it not for the fact that the two are so different in how they behave - Tygett is young and excitable and eager to meet new people whilst Gerion is shy and withdrawn, making it clear in an instant which is which if they are not dressed with one in red and the other gold in order to make things easier for the servants and the rest of the royal court. Even though they are many years away from any real responsibilities other than learning how to eat at the table without making a mess, they have both been given the traditional titles for the third and fourthborn sons of the Lannister line, with Tygett the Prince of the Port and thus master of Lannisport and Gerion the Prince of the Mines and thus the future guardian of the great gold deposits from which the Lannisters draw their wealth and strength.  
  
 **Princess Hill** : Joanna Hill, the King's bastard daughter, born from a Lantell mother who died giving birth to her a year before the then Prince Loreon was betrothed to Jeyne Westerling. Only eight years old, the young girl is still very much a child, but one that the Queen dotes upon as her own daughter, Jeyne having grown up as the only sister of six brothers - something that indebted the Westerling line quite heavily due to the costs of raising so many sons - and longing for a daughter to call her own...a daughter she has yet to have, despite her prayers and pregnancies. All that means that Queen Jeyne has grown to treat her husband's bastard daughter as if she was her own, ensuring that she is treated as though she was a trueborn princess by all the other members of the court, even seating her on the dais with her own children during feasts and even going so far as to dress her in red and gold, a thing that some says is a sign of her growing desire to have the young girl legitimized and brought into the family proper.  
  
 **Court of the Lion Kings  
  
The Lion's Paw: **Lord Tywin Reyne, Lord of Castamere and the King's ally, as well as his cousin owing to Loreon's mother having been Lord Tywin's aunt. The King's hand, Lord Tywin busies himself with the matter of ensuring that the Westerlands are ready and able for whatever his lord commands of them, managing the regular and less important affairs of the kingdom so that King Loreon might be able to focus upon his grand ambitions and work to see them made into reality...and one of Lord Tywin's greatest and most important responsibilities for his king has been to plan the assembly of a grand host that the Westerlands has not raised in centuries, not even for their part in the conquest of the Riverlands and the creation of the Marches, a host that is already being assembled outside the walls of Lannisport, where thousands of men of commonbirth are armed and armored and trained by veterans and named men-at-arms, ready to serve in the great battle host that King Loreon has opened the vaults of Casterly Rock to pay for. But perhaps even more important is the task that King Loreon has given to him in utter secrecy, a task of the utmost importance, a task that none of the realm's rivals can be allowed to learn of and not even the members of his own family, and that task is the monitoring of the seasons to determine when winter will come, for as every Westerosi knows, no army can march in the snows of winter, though a wily invader who times his conquests right can claim vast swathes of land and feast through winter in his enemy's holdings and use the time to embed their rule whilst their opponent languishes in the fields, unable to raise forces for a counterattack till the snow thaws again.  
 **  
Master of Mints and Treasuries:**  Ser Tygen Lannister, the King's youngest uncle, who continues the same work that he had done for his elder brother by serving as the master of the mints and treasuries of Casterly Rock and the rest of the Westerlands, giving the bands of prospectors who roam the land in search of gold and gems and silver the papers that allow them to stake their claim should they find anything worth the effort of extracting...papers that can only be issued by the Lords of Casterly Rock and which are necessary for any gold mine in the Westerlands to be declared legal, one of many ways by which the Lannisters have secured their control over their vassals, as mining the kingdom's lands without permission by the King is an offense against the crown. With the loyal Ser Tygen in place as the realm's master of the treasury, King Loreon has a kinsman in control of what is perhaps the most vital role in his court, and one who is eager to see the lion banners raised once more and willing to do everything he can to support the kingdom, having devised a system that allows the wealthy commonfolk, such as the merchants and skilled craftsmen of Lannisport, to contribute gold towards the crown's treasury in order to pay for its massive host in return to being exempt from being levied should there be a shortage of men later on in the conflict, something that means that the Lannister forces might not be as large as they could have been, but will be well equipped and well trained as well.  
  
 **Master of Law:**  Ser Alester Blackwood, brother of the Lord of Raventree Hall and the first man of the Eastern Marches of the Westerlands to have a true seat to call his own in the royal court, something made possible by his rightful morality and his disinclination towards bribes or other forms of corruption...a valuable trait for any man of the courts and laws who happens to serve in a land as blessed with coin and wealth as the Westerlands. Though his role at the court of Casterly Rock is to serve as an adviser on legal matters and to sit in the king's place during trials if King Loreon is otherwise unavailable, Ser Alester Blackwood also often serves as a representative of the interests of the Eastern Marches, speaking not only for his own family, but for the Tullys, the Wayns and the Mallisters and all the other families who now find themselves subject to the King of the Rock, ensuring that their voice is heard by the king and ensuring that they do not find themselves subject to the same oppression that had caused them to raise their swords against the Hoares when the armies of Andaldom crossed their borders.  
  
 **Master of Whisperers:** Ser Domeric Crakehall, Knight-Commander of the Septry Knights prior to his leaving the order, is perhaps the only real weakness in the king's court, for whilst Ser Domeric might possibly be amongst the most cunning men that the nobility of the Westerlands have to offer in recent years after King Loreon's father stabilized the realm following the disastrous disappearance of his own father, that is not saying much - a generation or more of men had taken the knightly vows and joined the Orders Militant, and though such a thing is certainly honorable and builds expertise in the ways of war and personal combat, it does little for the intrigues and indeed attempts to remove such a thing in order to make its men more closely adhere to the sacred texts that are the foundation of the holy orders. This has left the Westerlands with something of a lack of dishonesty, and though a man could do business with the lords of the west safe in the knowledge that they will genuinely uphold their end of a bargain and the population are made all the more content by the honesty that filters down from on high and into the commons, where the mutual belief that others will uphold their bargains is strong and making the trust that is the very thread from which the cloth of civilization is woven into a shining example, it has played agianst them in other areas, where foreign spies can operate against them with impunity and where the lords of the Westerlands will shun dishonorable conduct on the battlefield, even if doing so risks giving themselves a serious disadvantage.  
  
 **Commander of the Fleets:**  Ser Quenton Farman, heir of the Lord of Fair Isle and a captain of some renown in his own right, though the Westerlands have never been praised for producing good sailors except for those rare reigns where the lion looked to the sea rather than to the continent, the kingdom being predominantly a land power and overshone at sea by the Ironborn, the Westerlands still maintain a mighty fleet of coastal galleys with which to protect their shores. It is this force that Ser Quenton commands to the best of his ability, surrounding himself with experienced admirals and other men of the sea to make plans, even if they might be looked down upon by many of the other members of the court who prefer fighting their enemies on land rather than on the seas, but all the same, King Loreon is aware that any campaign of conquest he carries out will leave the Westerlands vulnerable to the Ironborn or other seaborn enemies and has made sure that Ser Quenton has everything he needs to guarantee the safety of their wives and children and homes for the day that the lion rises from its slumber and shakes the world with its roar.  
 **  
Court Septon:**  Hugh Lantell, a man of middling age born into one of the distant Lannister cousin lines in the city of Lannisport and who was fortunate enough to be blessed with the golden hair and green eyes of the true line. The representative of the Faith in the court of King Loreon, Septon Hugh has the responsibility of acting as the King's adviser on all matters spiritual and ensuring that the tenants of the Faith are well respected, something that he has done little to do, as Lannister gold has always been welcomed by the men and women of the Faith, their donations fueling charitable ventures across the realm, whilst his often relaxed nature when it comes to matters of the Faith, particularly those of the Architect of which he serves, has served to make him popular amongst the royal court for being less blinded by religious dogma than his predecessor...though some believe that the Court Septon's relationship with his counterpart in the Court Rose is far from simple friendship, though if there is any intimacy between them, none have been able to find proof of it.  
  
 **Court Rose:** Myranda, a woman of the same age as Hugh Lantell and coming from distant Oldtown, Myranda, like all the other Court Roses of Westeros, serves as the royal midwife, helping the queen and all the other women of the Lannister family who are still at the Rock in giving birth and in raising their children, but although many other highborn ladies are willing to give their children over to their rose to tend to so that they might deal with other matters, Queen Jeyne genuinely loves her children and raises them herself, leaving Myranda with little work to do but to go around the castle and help the commonfolk who live there with their own babies, collecting the children of working women for a royally funded nursery where they can be kept safe and out of the way whilst the rest of their family work, even going so far as to try and teach them how to read and write for a lack of better things to do with her time until the queen becomes pregnant or gives birth to a daughter of her own.  
  
 **High Lordships and Positions of Importance  
  
Lord Suzerain of the Rivers: **Lord Brynden Blackwood, Lord of Raventree Hall and Warden of the Marches by the authority of King Loreon and thus the overlord and master of all the eastern territories that come under the Lannister control, Lord Brynden is a man whose family has benefited a great deal from being named to the Wardenship. A close personal friend of the king himself, Lord Brynden Blackwood has the privilege of being able to fly the king's banner during any meetings and affairs within what was once known as the Riverlands, a symbol of how he speaks with the king's authority, collecting taxes and marshalling levies in the name of his liege lord. Like all Blackwoods, however, he continues the bitter rivalry that his line shares with the Brackens of the south, but with his enemies in place as the High Lord of the Northern Marches of the Stormreach, the next in the long history of conflicts between the two families promises to be a bloody one.  
  
 **Lord Commander of the Lion's Guard** : Ser Gerold Lannister, the King's uncle and a Knight-CAptain in the Holy Order of the Brotherhood of the Warrior-Saint, Ser Gerold is a knight of great renown and leader of the Lion's Guard ever since his return to the Rock. The King's own knightly brotherhood, sometimes referred to by others as "The King's Own", the Lion's Guard is an order of knights and warriors that was once little more than the original household guard of Casterly Rock that has since grown into the King's own armed retinue, a core of well trained and well equipped fighting men around which the levies might rally in times of war and which ensures the will of the Rock is absolute in times of peace, carrying out the king's justice.


	9. Section 3: The Six Kingdoms: The Kings and Courts of the Six Kingdoms, Part 2

**The Kingdoms of Stormreach**

**Royal Family  
King of Reach and Storm: **Mern the Tenth of his Name, of the House of Gardener-Durrandon, Lord of Highgarden and Storm's End, High Marshal of the Reach and the Stormlands and Defender of the Faith. A strong man and a strong king who had been able to weather the storm of unease that came with the birth of the union, King Mern is the first Gardener-Durrandon to sit two thrones and wear two crowns and has done much to help stabilize the new kingdom and bind it ever closer together with his charismatic tongue, making him perhaps the perfect king to sit the throne following the creation of such a massive realm. Able to bring former enemies to his table and make them leave again hours later with the understanding that they were not so different after all and with a newfound respect or even admiration for their shared history and strengths, it is as much his ability to please both Stormlords and Reachlords that has kept the union stable as it is his strong showing at the tourneys and melees of the realm and his support of the Faith, things that ensure that no man could ever question his worthiness as king. But now, the newborn union faces the serious threat of being inherited by a man who simply doesn't have the strength of character or arms or words to hold the two kingdoms together, and though King Mern is still strong and young, any wound he takes could be one that plunges the realm into chaos and uncertainty.  
  
 **Queen Consort:** Ceryse Hightower, the venerable Jewel of the South and King Mern's beloved wife. Five years her husband's elder, Ceryse was the first bride to be offered to King Mern in his youth...and the last, for it is no exaggeration of the singers to say that the pair came to love one another quickly, their romance beginning with an argument over whether or not Ser Galladon of Morne would be able to defeat Symeon Stareyes in single combat without the aid of the just maid. From there, the bond they share has only ever grown stronger and stronger, even if it is perhaps not as romantic as the bards might make it to be, the two occasionally mocking one another even when they are not in their cups, yet the fact the two still share a bed even though Ceryse is now past her childbearing years is proof enough of the love that lies beneath...and such love is well known amongst the bannerlords of the Stormreach, for Ceryse's failure to give her husband children for years after their wedding would have been enough for most other men to set their wives aside for a chance at more fertile fields. Wed at twenty two and still childless ten years later, such things had taken a deep toll upon the queen, leaving a somber grief that only her husband could cheer before the birth of their two children...yet even though Queen Ceryse's is closer to fifty than not, the Court Rose is uncertain as to whether or not she has lost her fertility...  
  
 **Princess Royal:** Alysanne Gardener-Durrandon, a beautiful maiden of seventeen years, Alysanne has not yet been wed or betrothed, and many duels have been fought over her hand and many tournaments held in her honor. Strong willed, pious and confident, some rare few believe that she herself could make a fine queen for the newborn Stormreach in her own right, the first Queen Regnant to have ever sat the throne of either realm. However, any faction that would seek to try and place the Princess Royal upon the throne and make her a queen in her own right are certain to be immensely outnumbered by the factions backing the other possible candidates for the seat, as well as any would be suitor who would seek to use the maiden Alysanne's claim to the throne to make their own bid for power.  
  
 **Prince of Storm's End:** Argilac Gardener-Durrandon, a youth of fourteen more inclined to his books and poetry than the knight's profession of warfare, it is thought that he would depart to take up religious vows...had he a male sibling to take the succession in his stead. Somewhat unpopular amongst the nobility for his lack of interest in the warrior's art, no one knows for sure if his transition to power will be a peaceful one or whether the newborn kingdom will die in the flames of civil war before its hundredth year.  
  
 **Defender of the Marches:** Gwayne Gardener, an aging stalwart of the original Gardener line prior to its near extinction, hailing from a distant and poor branch of the main line, Ser Gwayne Gardener carries the important title of defending the Dornish Marches and protecting the great bulk of the Stormreach from invasion from the south. A heavy responsibility made all the heavier by the old grudges between the houses of what were once the Stormlands and the Reach, who have many years of a shared history written in the blood of those who have fallen in the many wars between the two kingdoms, yet who are themselves united by how much they hate the Dornish...and hate the Dornish they do indeed, as the Marcherlords have nearly as much shared history of fighting side by side against the Martells of Sunspear as they do against each other. Careful to keep the focus on their shared history as allies, Gwayne might be considered by some in their whispers as a potential claimant for the throne, but is too preoccupied with keeping the Dornish Marches stable to take any active role in the realm's affairs...but if his cousin Mern was to die and war was to outbreak, few men know what he might do.  
  
 **Queen Dowager:** Argella Durrandon, the now ancient bride of King Mern IX following the near-extermination of his line on the Hills of Fire during their attempt to wipe Aegon Targaryen and his sisters from the face of the earth, the Queen Dowager finds herself trying desperately to stop the realm that was sealed in the blood of her children from tearing itself apart in war.  
  
 **Great Council**  
  
 **High Steward of Highgarden:** Ser Theo Tyrell, the latest member in a long line of Tyrells to serve the Gardener kings in the role of High Steward of Highgarden. A loyal servant who simply wants what is best for his family and for the realm, Ser Theo is the King's chamberlain and castellan, tasked with managing the day to day affairs of Highgarden - tasks such as managing the granaries and the cisterns for when winter comes, as well as more personal matters such as finding tutors for children or hiring new guardsmen - so that the king might focus his efforts on the far greater task of ruling the kingdom as a whole and his queen on the efforts of forging alliances within the kingdom and planning any major events such as feasts of tourneys or balls. Such tasks make Ser Theo amongst the king's most important advisers and counsellors, one who has the task of leading the king's council in managing the realm whenever the king is either already busy with other matters or unable to do so for whatever reason, as well as serving as the second designated regent in line should the king die before his heir is of age to take command of the realm for himself and should the queen, the first designated regent, be unable to take up the post herself.  
  
 **Royal Treasurer:**  Lord Alester Tarly, Lord of Horn Hill, High Almoner for King Mern and a Senior Brother of the Order of the Teacher's Sons and perhaps one of the most well learned men on the Great Council of the Stormreach, Alester, though a knight of reasonable renown, is far more well known for his understanding of mathematics...an understanding that easily earnt him a place on the Great Council as Royal Treasurer. A little more than forty years old, Lord Alester was part of the first generation to be born after the rise of the merger of the Stormlands and the Reach into a single unified entity, and though his own father was little supportive of the idea, the son is not the father and Lord Alester is an ardent supporter of the new union. Proposing the construction of new roads to tie the realm together and the development of a port on the mouth of the Blackwater Bay to open trade with the Free Cities and finance the new union, Lord Alester is a man whose advice is well favored by the king and by the realm as a whole, playing a vital role in an uncertain time and playing it well.  
  
 **Master of the Courts:**  Lord Antarion Grandison, Lord of Grandview and Master of the Royal Arms and Heraldry, one of the few Stormlanders to be on the council and a stalwart defender of the interests of his homeland. Though somewhat disaffected with the nature of the union, Lord Antarion is well known for placing pragmatism over idealism and recognizes that the union of the Stormlands and the Reach into a single, unified entity creates a whole that is far more than the mere sum of its parts and which is far more capable of dominating the continent than either realm alone thanks to a greater control of Westerosi trade. Managing the many courts and laws of the realms, Lord Antarion has the hard and difficult task of managing the laws of not just one but two kingdoms, a task made all the more difficult by the simple fact that, despite both crowns being held by the same individual, the Kingdom of the Reach and the Kingdom of the Stormlands still exist as his titles and thus as separate-but-connected entities under the throne, causing both to have separate legal traditions that have grown together into a construct that pleases neither side and which causes any crimes that stretch across the borders of either realm to need an investment in time that is both costly and long.  
  
 **Master of Spies:**  Lord Daven Darklyn, perhaps the most unique man in the Great Council, for Lord Daven is considered even by his king as a sly fox of a man who could rightly be called corrupt, scheming and a murderer, but never a traitor, for Ser Daven rules over Duskendale, a city that has benefited endlessly and continues to benefit from the rise of the Stormreach. A coldblooded killer who was turned down by the Star-Eyes for being too extreme and for seemingly enjoying what he does, in another world the men of the Warrior-Saint would have ridden forth to end the prince of terror in his own castle, but instead, Ser Daven's terrifying skills are applied in the service of the crown, where his network of spies - more accurately known as assassins given how they do nearly as much killing as spying in recent years - helps keep the union strong and stable by ensuring that no one is willing to plot any potential treasons in the open unless they wish to be paid a visit by Lord Daven or one of his agents in person, meaning that they must meet in person to discuss matters and thus greatly slowing down any attempt to plot or scheme, though in recent years Lord Daven has turned his attentions across the Narrow Sea in the name of diplomacy and trade, particularly with Tyrosh and Pentos, with the aim of enriching his home city all the more. Even with a formidable reputation for being able to make men disappear in the night, though, Lord Daven does have a reputation for a single, soft weakness in that he is fond of dogs, particularly puppies, and his white duskens - a breed of small, playful companion dogs - have become popular amongst the court's ladies due to their joyful and loving temperament.  
  
 **Grand Admiral of the Royal Navy:** Lord Mors Redwyne, Lord of the Arbor, the honorable Lord Redwyne, a strong supporter of the new union owing to the many opportunities it brings in both trade and politics and having already married a daughter off to a Stormlord in a show of his confidence in the union's future. Lord Mors has the vital task of seeing to the naval power of the realm, no easy task when it now borders two seas and must be able to contest both if it is to thrive, thus giving him overall command of all the fleets in the kingdom and the ports that support them, from the great shipyards of Oldtown to the small and sheltered harbor of Tarth to the busy trading piers of Duskendale, all of which contribute to the realm's maritime might. But perhaps the most critical of his works is that the has the immensely vital task of overseeing the management of the great forests of the realm, the Rainwood and the Kingswood of the old Stormlands, both of which comprise the realm's main source of shipbuilding timber, their ancient oak trees being seasoned for four years before being made ready for use in the shipyards of the realm...meaning that of all the ropewalks, forges, furnaces, houses and workshops, it is the seasoning sheds that are amongst the most well developed part of any of the realm's ports, as the drying timbers are easy for an attacker to burn and whose loss could set a shipyard back decades, and it is such grounds that the Grand Admiral ensures are as well guarded as a fortress might be. However, despite being Grand Admiral and despite hailing from the Arbor, Lord Mors has little taste for sea travel and instead prefers the business of managing a navy rather than commanding one, and so leaves the nature of making battle upon the waves to other men, carefully helping the king and the rest of the court in selecting suitable men for the task of commanding the realm's fleets in times of war or peace and in finding good captains to lead the patrols of the Narrow Sea.  
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Court Septon:**  Rossart, a man of growing age and successor to the one who presided over the joining of Gardener and Durrandon, Rossart is a septon with a strong faith and an even stronger understanding of the texts, incorporating all their teachings into his daily life and serving as King Mern's counsellor on all matters spiritual, having been his stalwart counsellor and educator on matters of the Faith for centuries. Such things should have resulted in his elevation to the Council of the Seventy Seven, were it not for the simple fact that, despite his piety, Rossart lacks the charisma needed to convince others of his arguments effectively, a grievous fault for any man who would debate the nature of the gods or try to convince others to join the faith; for that Rossart is forever a septon, never to rise any higher, never destined for the greatness of the upper echelons of the Faith's hierarchy.  
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Court Rose:** Alicent, an aged woman well versed in the challenges of childbed and who came with Queen Ceryse from Oldtown when she first wed King Mern many years before, Alicent is a woman who, for all her many years of experience, remains well and truly perplexed by the strange nature of the queen's fertility, which she finds nigh impossible to predict. A close friend of the queen, who some say views the kindly old woman as a second mother, Alicent had been one of her main sources of comfort in the long, childless years before the birth of her first child, as well as her most trusted aide in the raising of her children, and though she cannot determine whether or not Queen Ceryse is past her childbearing years, she continues her work in preparation for the day that her son claims a bride of his own, though aware of her mortality she has sent word to her Order to begin finding a possible replacement or at the very least a younger sister who she can teach so that they are ready to take her responsibilities when the time comes.  
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High Lordships and Positions of Importance  
  
High Lord of the Northern Marches: **Lord Luthor Bracken, the principal bannerman to the Gardener kings in what had once been the southernmost sections of the Hoare empire, Lord Luthor is King Mern's greatest bannermen in that region and thus the rightful overlord of all those who come within its territories, acting on the king's behalf as the guardian of what the rest of the Stormreach refers to as the "Northern Marches." Though some would consider that the possible instability of the Stormreach that could come from a weak succession in the next few decades an opportunity for those who had once been called Rivermen to make a grab for independence as they have tried to do many times before, the Brackens have eagerly embraced their role as the greatest authority in the region with the greatest vigor, for like their counterparts in the other Marches, the Brackens wield a great amount of power over the land thanks to their unique role in the defense of the realm thanks to their position at the confluence of Westeros' greatest powers. With their authority backed by the armies and wealth of the greatest kingdom of the South, the Brackens are the unquestioned masters of their area and have done much to entrench their position through the use of roads that flow from the southern banks of the Red Fork back to their domains, bringing trade to Stone Hedge and allowing a town to grow around their walls...yet although such power has done much to elevate them from the rest of the lords of their region, with the Darrys who had once been an equal now sworn in their service to what some men call a new kind of lord, a "Lord Paramount", they find themselves matched by equals in the other realms, and none more so than their old rivals to the north who now find themselves the Lord Suzerain of the Eastern Marches of the Westerlands, the Blackwoods, and neither side would be inclined to refuse battle if the time came...  
  
 **Lord Commander of the Knights of the Golden Field:** Ser Garth Gardener-Durrandon, the King's younger brother and supreme commander of the Knights of the Golden Field, the king's own brotherhood of knights and an order that goes back to before the formation of the Stormreach, but one that now styles itself as the chief arbiter and supporter of the newborn union, its ranks filled with men who swear themselves to the king of both realms. Called the Crownguard by those who share their belief and desire for a united realm, they are viewed by those who dislike the union as the enforcers of a foreign king's will and the means by which they can spread their influence across the land, something that means that the knighthood is perhaps the only one in all of Westeros to find itself more popular amongst the lowborn who will benefit from the peace and the merchantmen who will gain from the opening of new trade routes than amongst the general nobility. However, with the Knights of the Golden Field able to act as a rallying point for those such as the Dondarrions and Oakhearts who support the Stormreach, it could be said that perhaps just under half of the lords of the realms would be willing to rise up in defense of the union if it was placed under threat, benefitting from the new trade, the new peace and the new possibilities that have come from the unification of the two.

  
**The Kingdom of the Isles**

**Royal Family**  
  
 **King on the Iron Throne:** Ormund the Second of His Name, of the House of Hoare, Iron King of the Iron Islands and the Sunset Sea, King of Salt and Rock and Son of the Sea Wind, Lord Reaper of the Isles, Master of the Iron Throne and Wearer of the Driftwood Crown, called Ormund Axehand by many. Inheriting a massive fortress on Great Wyk from his predecessor, King Harren IV, as well as a throne forged from swords paid for with the iron price that his people have come to call the Iron Throne, King Ormund sits in command of a realm hungry for wealth and land and has commenced the construction of a great new fleet carved from strong and ancient Northern timber, signed over willingly by the Starks as part of their alliance, in order to usher in a new age of conquest and reaving that promises to be the first step on the long road to restoring the Hoare's great empire. Though some of his vassal lords have grown weary of the Hoares and their long rule, asking for a new Moot to find a new bloodline to lead them into a new age, King Ormund's deadly wielding of a Valyrian steel axe - one said to match the appearance of that which had been lost by the Celtigars who had taken part in the conquest of the Riverlands, during the very same holy war that took away the last piece of the Ironborn's once mighty dominion - has been enough to silence any man who might think to challenge him openly, as Ormund is a man who was raised upon the bitter furor of his father and grandfather and whose every action is martial in aim and who has no patience for defiance, challenging his would be usurpers to single combat...only to throw their broken bodies to those who would follow their lead. Even still, Ormund Axehand is said to have secured his reign not just with blood, but with honor as well, as while the Iron King does not make promises easily, he has never broken one, something that brings men to his side, confident that he will not renege upon his promises of glory and plunder.  
  
 **Wife of Iron and Rock:**  Mara Greyjoy, Ormund's dutiful bride and daughter of one of his principal bannermen, Mara Greyjoy - though somewhat shy by Ironborn standards - has certainly done her duty to her husband by giving him six strong sons, yet still fertile at thirty seven there is the serious possibility that she might yet give him more. Though the Sisters of the Blooming Rose are not around to help her in giving birth, the alliance between the Iron Islands and the North has allowed the New Citadel of Winterfell to send a maester to Great Wyk and to Harren's Hall to help her, bringing with him the rather ingenious idea of using milk of the poppy during childbirth to dull her senses of the pain of labor - something that the Roses might never have even considered due to the potential risk to the child. Indeed, Queen Mara often cannot recall the birth whatsoever and certainly has no recollection of any pain, and such things often cause her to laugh at the very idea that childbirth is painful, awing those women who are unaware of her maester's practices.  
  
 **Iron Prince:** Davos Hoare, Ormund Axehand's firstborn son and his heir, a strong and handsome youth of twenty due to be wed to Old King Torrhen's granddaughter before the year is out and a scarred warrior who has fought in battle during reavings in Westeros, the Stepstones and even far Essos, Davos' body is marked with the scars of waging war from moment he was old enough to raise an axe. Taking after his father well, Davos is a warrior who promises to be a warrior king, uncomplicated and with the wiles of a fighter's cunning, but whilst some might expect an Ironborn raider to be harsh and cruel and to be iron towards the woman who would become his wife, those who have seen him meet his betrothed have seen gentleness beneath his scarred cheeks that they had not expected to see, Ormund treating the rather fearful Stark maiden who is to be his bride with courtesy and respect.  
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Prince of Wyk:**  Vickon Hoare, born nearly two years to the day after his brother Davos and whom he grew up besides and came to idolize. Though he has many years of experience as a warrior of the Iron Islands, coming from reavings of the Dornish shore, and though he tries his best to be a good brother to the elder Davos, following his lead in all things, it is clear at a glance that he lacks his brother's strengths, being shorter and less handsome than the Iron Prince, and though some might think that such a situation might make him all the more resentful of his elder brother, it has only served to bring the two closer together, for the Prince of Wyk truly believes that his brother Davos is the best suited to lead the Iron Islands when the time comes for their father to go to the Drowned God's watery halls.  
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Prince of Longships:**  Harwyn Hoare, fourteen, Harwyn is the middlemost of the sons and one who will soon be going upon his first ever reaving and one that will promise to be one to remember, the King in the North having enlisted the aide of their Ironborn allies to help deal with the cannibal clans of the Frozen Shore and the Bay of Ice, where the situation threatens to give rise to another King-Beyond-the-Wall. Unblooded and unmarked by battle, it is expected that he will sail forth with his eldest brother before the year is out and drape himself in glories that are truly his own and not simply those of his family.  
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Prince of Forests:** Harren Hoare, twelve, the most bookish of Ormund's sons, the Prince of Forests is something of an extension of the Andal heritage of the Hoares, for whilst he certainly does not keep the Faith of the Seven, he is as well versed in the sciences and in the many topics of literature that a twelve year old Hoare could be, genuinely interested in the lessons that his father's maester might have to offer...and whose teachings on astronomy have made him a useful member of his eldest brother's crew, where he serves as navigator and learns to sail as any man of the isles might.  
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Prince of Grapes:** Qhorwyn Hoare, eight, Qhorwyn is still too young to take part in any of the offensive voyages of his elders and certainly the more risky missions of his father, but instead remains at the Iron Islands alongside the youngest of the brothers, being taught how to swim and sail and fight for the day that he is old enough to join them on the waves.  
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Prince of Ravens:** Othgar Hoare, the youngest of Ormund and Mara's children, little Othgar is the spitting image of his father, but far too young to play any real role in his father's dreams of conquest and expansion at a mere three years of age...though being the youngest of the brothers has its benefits, as King Ormund's greatest weakness is his love of his sons, the Iron King bringing them gifts from his travels and raids.  
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King's Council  
  
Shieldbearer: **Lord Victarion Harlaw, Lord Reaper of Harlaw and the King's shieldbearer, an ancestral title leading back to long before the Andal invasion, where the greatest and most important of an Ironborn warrior's companions was his shieldbearer, who protected and maintained and painted the shield that was necessary for his master to make battle, as well as the rest of his war equipment. Such a title was only ever given to the most trusted of servants, and such a thing is reflected still even countless years after, where the King's shieldbearer is his right hand in the Iron Islands and their caretaker in his absence, and such work is what Lord Victarion does without complaint, ensuring that the matters of the Iron Islands remain settled whilst the king and his sons are over the horizon or otherwise preoccupied with matters of their own.  
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Master of Gold and Silver:** Aeron Codd, a second son from a less than renowned house of the Iron Islands, but one whose skill with coin - a rare talent amongst the Ironborn - has earnt him a place on his king's council. Though the warriors of the Iron Islands say that they'll pay the iron price for anything that they take, the reality underneath Hoare rule is far different from such boasting, for the Hoares have intermarried with Andals for many centuries before the present day, integrating them into the land as all those who had came with them and as they themselves once had, yet whilst they might not have adopted the faith of their Andal kin, they certainly came to understand the value of knowledge and trade in a way that few of the Iron Kings before them ever had. Such knowledge gave rise to the Master of Gold and Silver, who has the task of managing the kingdom's finances and overseeing its merchant activities, the Hoare dynasty well aware that the Isles have little in the name of riches but those that they can bring there through reaving or trade.  
  
 **Master of the Lawstone:**  Brandon Karstark, the brother of the Lord of the Karhold and a cousin of King Torrhen's heir, Brandon Karstark - much like his counterpart Victarion in the North - was supposed to be little more than a representative on the Iron Islands of Northern interests, there to speak on Old King Torrhen's behalf...yet upon his arrival, King Ormund appointed him to his King's Council, saying that a foreigner would be his best choice to serve as the master of his laws, knowing that they would not be tempted to give any family on the Isles too much leeway. Another ancient title going back to deep into the history of the Iron Islands, the Master of the Lawstone comes from the days of the Kingsmoot, where newly elected kings would inscribe their laws upon a stone for all to see, so that their punishments and commandments might be set, unchanging, as that which they had promised prior to their rise, a tradition that has carried to the modern day, with the King of the Iron Islands always commissioning a new Lawstone at the start of their reign to serve as the code of laws for the land. Though such a tradition is now obsolete, the old Hoares having abolished the Moot and instead made the throne of the Iron Islands be inherited from one generation to the next, the position still remains an important and prestigious one, for the Master of the Lawstone is forever at the side of the King or his Shieldbearer in whatever trials are brought before them, advising on legal matters and ensuring that the Islands remain united and do not descend into petty barbarism.  
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Master of Ravens:** Lord Goren Greyjoy, Lord Reaper of Pyke and the King's own spymaster, tasked with looking after the ravenry and ensuring that the islands are never taken by surprise, adding would be traitors and turncloaks to his collection of pickled heads. Although spywork is not considered an honorable or glorious profession amongst the people of the Isles, they are not so foolish to consider it a meaningless one and forgo the use of spies - indeed, the Ironborn can be considered to have the greatest network of spies and agents in the Seven Kingdoms, as Ironborn men and women are famed for their skill at sailing the seas and find work easily on the merchant ships that stop at every port...and where a cunning mind can paint words upon stones and leave them in preplanned hiding places for their master's to collect. Such messages are relayed safely and silently back to the Iron Islands through the use of trained messenger ravens, the very same birds that the maesters had once used to communicate across the great distances of Westeros prior to the destruction of the Old Citadel, and it is from there that the title comes, for the Master of Ravens continues this art of using the black bird to send messages from one place to a next, his informers draped in black to better fit into the shadows as they do their silent work. Though it is said that Ironborn spies have a nest in every port in the Seven Kingdoms, great or small, the truth is certainly something less, but whatever the scale of the Raven's work, it allows them to know when they should strike and when they should stay their hand.  
  
 **Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet:** Though it is often normal for the Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet to be someone related to the king, typically a younger brother or an uncle and most often a cousin, as well as always someone of renown at sea, King Ormund has decided to bestow the position of Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet upon his firstborn son and heir, with some whispering that he did so to further consolidate power into the royal family and others saying that he simply wanted to ensure that his eldest son was ready for the responsibilities of commanding the islands, and what better way to learn that responsibility than by leading its fleets?  
  
 **Court Maester:**  Brandon of Winterfell, one of the first maesters of the New Citadel to have found their way to the Iron Islands, Brandon of Winterfell is a Northerner through and through, but a highly learned Northerner at that, having fashioned a chain of eight links in accordance with the order's traditions. But his greatest interest shows in the form of the medallion-esque link of silver that show his great understanding of medicine and the mysterious workings of the body, knowledge that he has had many a chance to put to good use in the court of King Ormund, tending to the wounds of the royal family taken during their reavings or training or games or at any other time, even going so far as to pioneer the use of milk of the poppy in childbirth...a technique that is already spreading quickly through the isles, used by any who can afford to pay its cost.  
  


**The Princedom of Dorne**

**Royal Family**  
  
 **Princess of Dorne:** Deria Nymeros Martell, granddaughter of Princess Meria Nymeros Martell. She would not be born till twenty years after Aegon attempted his conquest, making her the desperately needed heir for the Martell line as her father, Prince Nymor Nymeros Martell, failed time and time again to father a successor. Yet to turn even thirty years of age, her nameday late in the year that has only just begun, Princess Deria is unquestionably the youngest of all the rulers of the Seven Kingdoms and a young ruler who has an even younger family, made all the smaller by a number of calamities and accidents in recent years that have served to shrink the once vast line of Nymeros-Martell to a fraction of its former size...and which now influences Princess Deria to ensure that the realm stays out of any long conflicts and to make certain that the realm has a chance to grow, as her family might.  
  
 **Prince:** Merion Nymeros Martell, her son and heir, a youth of ten beginning to take up the spears of his family and follow in his Dayne father's steps as a warrior and leader of men. Some think he may well one day be the one to lead the armies of Dorne in breaking up the great union to the north, others think that he might instead lead the armies of Dorne to the greatest defeat in the history of the Princedom, but still young and still unproven, no one really knows what fate he might bring for certain.  
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Prince:** Oberyn Nymeros Martell, her second born son, of a mere seven years old, still more interested in japing and playing than in the work of a growing prince, play that his mother is willing to let him have before he is forced to grow up to face the challenges of the world, though even still, he is being taught to fight and read by his tutors still, preparations for the day that he sets aside the games of childhood once and for all.  
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Princess:** Mariah Nymeros Martell, her single daughter and the youngest of her children at three years of age. Still unbetrothed despite the Rhoynish tradition of arranging marriages young, the question of who Mariah will marry is one that occupies the interests of much of the Dornish nobility, even if there will be many years before she is old enough to be wed herself.  
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Prince-Consort:** Ser Uther Dayne, brother of the Lord of Starfall, once a paramour and now a husband, the second son of Starfall...  
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The Princess's Council  
  
Lord-Domo: **...is also her champion in military matters. Filling the ancestral role of the Domo, a position brought from the Rhoyne before the fall, Uther's role at court is part steward and part general. Similar in role to that of the more familiar castellans of Westeros, the Lord-Domo has the unique responsibilities of not only managing the household and the royal court in Princess Deria's absence, but also with leading her armies into battle on her behalf. Such a post combines that of the treasurers of the northern kingdoms with that of the head of their council, as was the tradition in the many princedoms of the Rhoyne where it was believed that a ruler without coin was akin to a cart without wheels and therefore sought to marry the two positions together into one, a tradition that Dorne keeps still when all the other embers of the Rhoynish nations flicker and grow dim.  
  
 **Lord-Lawyer:** Ser Lucias Qorgyle, the Knight of Sandstone and one of Princess Deria's old paramours - something that causes no little amount of resentment between him and Ser Uther Dayne over him being chosen where Lucias was not - serves as the master of Dorne's laws, a task that is easier said than done, for Dorne's laws a combination of those of the First Men and the Andals who invaded and made battle against them for aeons before the Rhoynar crossed the Narrow Sea and broke the stalemate and brought laws of their own...and though the Rhoynar certainly won the battles, their laws were less sucessful and melted into the mix that dominates the land. The result is a code of laws that can best be described as labyrinthine, bigger still than that of several other kingdoms combined, full of things that affect it here and there based on certain conditions, punishments for crimes that can no longer be carried out due to changing circumstances and even legal privileges that could start wars, such as the right for houses on the Dornish side of the Red Mountains to shoot arrows against any men from the northern side, but only on the Worsday of the week. All this makes managing Dornish law a task better suited for dozens of men rather than just one, men that are called "lawyers" in the Rhoynish tradition, men that should be led by one who came from their ranks, but with the Lord-Domo's recommendation, this position was given to his old rival, Ser Lucias Qorgyle, who rightly considers it to be a poisoned chalice.  
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Lady-Spymaster:**  Lady Arianne Dalt, sometimes called the Yellow Lady due to her striking use of light colors, the Lady Arianne had been a childhood friend of the Princess Deria, with some saying that the pair had gone far beyond friends in their younger years, still uncertain of their "tastes", yet past whatever rumors there might be about how the two came to be such good friends, the Yellow Lady is the Princess' most trusted adviser and ally...and it is she that has the task of managing the realm's spies and informants and assassins and even their preparations to resist in times of war, where secret caches of weapons and armor and food and water placed in remote places in the countryside are kept ready for their times of need and to ensure that the Dornish people always have a means with which to fight against their invaders. Even more, she even has the task of running the brothels that litter the southernmost realm, many of whose women are secretly spies in service of the Princess and claiming whatever information they can from their customers, whether they be words uttered or missives stolen.  
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Lord-Admiral:** Ser Symon Darklyn, Lord Commander of the Dornish chapter of the Militant Order of the Seven Sails, centered on the island of Ghaston Grey. With Dorne having not had a fleet of any real size since the burning of the ships in Nymeria's day, yet with the realm now threatened by the new power that now has ports on both sides of the realm with which to hunt Dornish merchant shipping and starve the realm of trade in times of war - not to mention stopping the Dornish from being able to play the Stormlands and the Reach against one another, as they had many times before - the southernmost of the Six Kingdoms finds itself forced to rebuild its navy and its naval traditions if it is to protect one of the vital lifelines that allow it to maintain its independence. Thus, with Dorne having not had any naval presence in millenia, Princess Deria has had no choice but to welcome the Knights of the Seven Sails to her court, the members of the Order all too happy to help their fellows of the Faith rebuild their fleet and learn how to make battle upon the seas once more, and few better signs of this than the presence of Ser Symon Darklyn at Sunspear, overseeing the work by the Order's naval architects to design new ships and personally finding new men (and women by the request of the Princess herself) to captain them...but not before sending them to join the fleets of the Order for training elsewhere, first.  
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Court Septon:**  Perwyn of Lannisport, the Princess's own confessor, and some whisper "confessor" in an entirely different way, claiming that her visits to his sept to expunge herself of sin and better her chance of passing into the heavens are simply a cover for the pair to have their liaisons. Young, handsome and with the traditional Lannisport look of sandy-blonde hair and blue eyes, Perwyn's arrival at the court of Sunspear from the distant Westerlands was welcomed eagerly, the Dornish having no quarren with the Lannisters of Casterly Rock...but whilst some believe that he may or may not be in a relationship with the Princess herself, others still wonder whether or not he is more interested in the Prince-Consort than not. Whatever it is, Septon Perwyn is careful to avoid whatever scandals people seem to believe he is up to, and the High Septons remain pleased with his performance there.  
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Court Rose:**  Marissa of White Harbor, a woman past her own childbearing years and with several sons and daughters of her own in the city from whence she came, Lady Marissa has the grey eyes and brown hair of the Northmen and certainly has at least a sympathy for the Old Gods, but has chosen to repay the help of the Sisters of the Blooming Rose in delivering her own children by joining the order herself, something that carried her around the Seven Kingdoms before she was given the permanent position at Sunspear to tend to the Martell family, a task she has embraced wholeheartedly, even if she has had more than a little difficulty settling in thanks to the immense heat of the city when compared to her native land.


End file.
